
Class ^ - 

Book Ji-l£ 

Byt)(^iU?of 

William Lukens Slioemaker 



Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
in 2011 witii funding from 
Tine Library of Congress 



Iittp://www.arcliive.org/details/journeytowestern02jolin 



A 



JOURNEY 



^//^:2X 



TO THE 



WESTERN ISLANDS 



OF 



SCOTLAND. 



BY SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. 



FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. 



Published by Philip H. Nicklin, and Co. Baltimore; Fan-antf, 

Mallory, and Co. Boston; J. Green, Albiuiy; E. Earle, 

and B. B. Hopkins and Co. Phiiaddphia. 

Fj-y and Kammerer, Printers. 
1810. 



aift 

t $ '06 



Strand, Oct. 26, 1785. 
|C7* Since this Work was printed off, the Publisher 
having been informed that the Author, some years ago, 
had promised the laird of Raasay to correct, in a future 
edition, a passage concerning him, p. 97, thinks it a 
justice due to that gentleman to insert here the adver- 
tisement relative to this matter, which was published, 
by Dr. Johnson's desire, in the Edinburgh newspapers 
in the year 1775, and which has been lately reprinted 
in Mr. Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides. 

" The Author of the Journey to the Western Islands 
** having related that the Macleods of Raasay acknow- 
•* ledge the chieftainship, or superiority, of the Macleods 
♦* of Sky, finds that he has been misinformed or mistaken. 
" He means in a future edition to correct his errour, 
« and wishes to be told of more, if more have been dis- 
« covered." 



JOURNEY 



TO THE 



WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND. 



I HAD desired to visit the Hebrides, or Wes- 
tern Islands of Scotland, so long, that I scarcely 
remember how the wish was originally excited; 
and was, in the autumn of the year 1773, in- 
duced to undertake the journey, by finding in 
Mr. Boswell a companion whose acuteness 
would help my inquiry, and whose gaiety of con- 
versation and civility of manners are sufficient 
to counteract the inconveniences of travel in 
countries less hospitable than we have passed. 
On the eighteenth of August we left Edin- 
burgh, a city too well known to admit descrip. 
tion, and directed our course northward, along 



2 A JOURNEY TO THE 

the eastern coast of Scotland, accompanied the 
first day by another gentleman, who could stay 
with us only long enough to show us how much 
we lost at separation. 

As we crossed the Frith of Forth, our curio- 
sity was attracted by Inch Keith, a small island, 
which neither of my companions had ever visit- 
ed, though, lying within their view, it had all 
their lives solicited their notice. Here, by 
climbing with some difficulty over shattered 
crags, we made the first experiment of unfre- 
quented coasts. Inch Keith is nothing more 
than a rock covered with a thin layer of earth, 
not wholly bare of grass, and very fertile of 
thistles. A small herd of cows grazes annually 
upon it in the summer. It seems never to have 
afforded to man or beast a permanent habitation. 

We found only the ruins of a small fort, not 
so injured by time but that it might be easily 
restored to its former state. It seems never to 
have been intended as a place of strength, nor 
was built to endure a siege, but merely to afford 
cover to a few soldiers, w^io perhaps had the 
charge of a battery, or were stationed to give 
signals of approaching danger. There is there^ 
fore no provision of water within the walls; 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 3 

though the spring is so near, that it might have 
-been easily enclosed. One of the stones had 
this inscription: '' Maria Reg. 1564." It has 
probably been neglected from the time that the 
whole isla^4 ^^^ the same king. 

•We left this little island with our thoughts 
employed awhile on the different appearance 
that it would have made if it had been placed 
at the same distance from London, with the 
same facility of approach; with what emulation 
of price a few rocky acres would have been 
purchased, and with what expensive industry 
they would have been cultivated and adorned. 

When we landed, we found our chaise ready, 
and passed through Kinghorn, Kirkaldy, and 
Cupar, places not unlike the small or straggling 
market towns in those parts of England where 
commerce and manufactures have not yet pro- 
duced opulence. 

Though we were yet in the most populous 
part of Scotland, and at so small a distance 
from the capital, we met few passengers. 

TJie roads are neither rough nor dirty; and 
it affords a southern stranger a new kind of 
pleasure to travel so commodiously without the 
interrifption of toll gates. Where the bottom 



^ A JOURNEY TO THE 

is rocky, as it seems commonly to be in Scot- 
land, a smooth way is made indeed with great- 
labour, but it never wants repairs; and in those 
parts jvhere adventitious materials are necessa- 
ry, the ground once consolidated is varcly bro- 
ken; for the inland commerce is not great, nor 
are heavy commodities often transported other- 
wise than by water. The carriages in common 
use are small carts, drawn each by one little 
horse; and a man seems to derive some degree 
of dignity and importance from the reputation 
of possessing a two-horse cart. 

ST. ANDREW'S, 

At an hour somewhat late we came to St. 
Andrew's, a city once archiepiscopal; where that 
university still subsists in which philosophy was 
formerly taught by Buchanan, whose name has 
as fair a claim to immortality as can be conferred 
by modern latinity, and perhaps a Aurer than 
the instability of vernacular languages admits. 

We found, that by the interposition of some 
invisible friend, lodgings had been provided for 
us at the house of one of the professor*, whose 
easy civility quickly made us forget that we 
were strangers; and in the whole time%f our 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 5. 

Stay we were gratified by every mode of kind- 
ness, and entertained with all the elegance of 
lettered hospitality. 

In the morning we rose to perambulate ^ 
city, which only history shows to have once 
flourished, and surveyed the ruins of ancient 
magnificence, of which even the ruins cannot 
long be visible, unless some care be taken to 
preserve them; and where is the pleasure of 
preserving such mournful memorials? They 
have been till very lately so much neglected, 
that every man carried away the stones who 
fancied that he wanted them. 

The cathedral, of w^hich the foundations may 
be still traced, and a small part of the wall is 
standing, appears to have been a spacious and 
majestick building, not unsuitable to the prima- 
cy of the kingdom. Of the architecture, the poor 
remains can hardly exl^bit, even to an artist, a 
sufficient specimen. I^ was demolished, as is 
well known, in the tumult and violence of 
Knox's reformation. 

Not far from the cathedral, on the margin of 
the water, stands a fragment of the castle, in 
which the archbishop anciently resided. It was 

never very large, and was built with more at- 

A 2 



6 A JOURNEY TO THE 

tention to security than pleasure. Cardinal Bea- 
toun is said to have had workmen em ployed in 
improving its fortifications at the time when he 
was murdered by the ruffians of reformation, 
in the manner of which Knox has given what 
he himself calls a merry narrative. 

The change of religion in Scotland, eager 
and vehement as it was, raised an epidemical 
enthusiasm, compounded of sullen scrupulous- 
ness, and warlike ferocity, which, in a people 
whom idleness resigned to their own thoughts, 
and who conversing only with each other, suf- 
fered no dilution of their zeal from the gradual 
influx of new opinions, was long transmitted in 
its full strength from the old to the young, but, 
by trade and intercourse with England, is now 
visibly abating, and giving way too fast to that 
laxity of practice and indifference of opinion, in 
which men, not sufficiently instructed to find 
the middle point, too easily shelter themselves 
from rigour and constraint. 

The city of St. Andrew's, when it had lost 
its archiepiscopal preeminence, gradually de- 
cayed: One of its streets is now lost; and in 
those that remain there is the silence and soli- 
tude of inactive indigence and gloomy depopu- 
lation. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 7 

The university, within a few years, consisted 
of three colleges, but is now reduced to two; 
the college of St. Leonard being lately dissolved 
by the sale of its buildings and the appropria- 
tion of its revenues to the professors of the two 
others. The chapel of the alienated college is 
yet standing, a fabBick not inelegant of external 
structure; but I was always, by some civil ex- 
cuse, hindered from entering it. A decent at- 
tempt, as I was since told, has been made to 
convert it into a kind of greenhouse, by plant- 
ing its area with shrubs. This new method of 
gardening is unsuccessful; the plants do not 
hitherto prosper. To whcU use it will next be 
put, I have no pleasure in conjecturing. It is 
something, that its present state is at least not 
ostentatiously displayed. Where there is yet 
shame, there may in time be virtue. 

The dissolution of St. Leonard's College was 
doubtless necessary; but of that necessity there 
is reason to complain. It is surely not without 
just reproach, that a nation, of which the com- 
merce is hourly extending, and the wealth in- 
creasing, denies any participation of its prospe- 
rity to its literary societies; and while its mer- 
chants or its nobles are raising palaces, suiFers 
its universities to moulder into dust. 



■m^ 



g A JOURNEY TO THE 

Of the two colleges yet standing, one is by 
the institution of its founder appropriated to 
Divinity. It is said to be capable of containing 
fifty students; but more than one must occupy 
a chamber. The library, which is of late erec- 
tion, is not very rapacious, but elegant and lu- 
minous. 

The doctor, by whom it was shown, hoped 
to irritate or subdue my English vanity, by tel- 
ling me that we had no such repository of books 
in England. 

St. Andrew's seems to be a place eminently 
adapted to study and education, being situated 
in a populous, yet a cheap country, and expo- 
sing the minds and manners of young men nei- 
ther to the levity and dissoluteness of a capital 
city, nor to the gross luxury of a town of com- 
merce, places naturally unpropitious. to learn- 
ing; in one the desire of knowledge easily gives 
way to the love of pleasure, and in the other, is 
in danger of yielding to the love of money. 

The students, however, are represented as at 
this time not exceeding a hundred. Perhaps it 
may be some obstruction to their increase that 
there is no episcopal chapel in the place. I saw 
no reason for imputing their paucity to the pre- 



WESTERN ISLANDS, 9. 

sent professors; nor can the expense of an aca- 
demical education be very reasonably objected. 
A student of the highest class may keep his an- 
nual session, or, as the English call it, his term, 
which lasts seven months for about fifteen 
pounds, and one of lower rank for less than ten; 
in which, board, lodging, and instruction, are 
all included. 

The chief magistrate resident in the univer- 
sity, answering to our vicechancellor, and to 
the rector magnificus on the continent, had com- 
monly the title of Locd Rector; but being ad- 
dressed only as Mr. Rector in an inauguratory 
speech by the present chancellor, 1^ has fallen 
from his former dignity of style. Lordship was 
very liberally annexed by our ancestors, to any 
station or chai;acter of dignity: They said, the 
** Lord General," and " Lord Ambassador;" 
so we still say, " my Lord," to the judge upon 
the circuit, and yet retain in our liturgy, " the 
*' Lords of the Council." 

In walking among the ruins of religious build- 
ings, we came to two vaults, over which had for- 
merly stood the house of the sub- prior. One of 
the vaults was inhabited by an old woman, who 
claimed the right of abode there, as the widow 



10 A JOURNEY TO THE 

of a man whose ancestors had possessed the 
same gloomy mansion for no less than four ge- 
nerations. The right, however began, was con- 
sidered as established by legal prescription, and 
the old woman lives undisturbed. She thinks, 
however, that she has a claim to something 
more than sufferance; for as her husband's name 
was Bruce, she„is allied to royalty, and told Mr« 
Boswell that when there were persons of quali- 
ty in the place, she was distinguished by some 
notice; that indeed she is now neglected, but 
she spins a thread, has the company of her cat^ 
and is troublesome to nobody. 

Having now seen whatever this ancient city 
offered to our curiosity, we left it with good 
wishes, having reason to be highly pleased with 
the attention that was paid us. But whoever 
surveys the world must see many things that 
give him pain. The kindness of the professors 
did not contribute to abate the uneasy remem- 
brance of an university declining, a college ali- 
enated, and a church profaned and hastening to 
the ground. 

St. Andrew's indeed has formerly suffered 
more atrocious ravages, and more extensive de- 
struction, but recent avils affect with greater 



WESTERN ISLANDS. . H 

force. We were reconciled to the sight of archi- 
^piscopal ruins. The distance of a calamity 
from the present time seems to preclude the 
mind from contact or sympathy. Events long 
past are barely known; they are not considered. 
We read with as little emotion the violence of 
Knox and his followers, as the irrHptions of 
Alaric and the Goths. Had the university been 
destroyed two centuries ago, we should not 
have regretted it; but to see it pining in decay, 
and struggling for life, fills the mind with 
mournful images and ineffectual wishes. 

ABERBROTHICK. 
As we knew sorrow and wishes to be vain, it 
was now our business to mind our way. The 
roads of Scotland afford little diversion to the 
traveller, who seldom sees himself either en- 
countered or overtaken, and who has nothing 
to contemplate but grounds that have no visi- 
ble boundaries, or are separated by walls of 
" loose stone. From the bank of the Tweed to 
St. Andrew's, I had never seen a single tree, 
which I did not believe to have grown up far 
within the present century. Now and then about 
a gentleman's house stands a small plantation. 



12 . A JOURNEY TO THE 

which in Scotch is called a Polic}^ but of these 
there are few, and those few all very young. 
The variety of sun and shade is here utterly 
unknown. There is no tree for either shelter or 
timber. The oak and the thorn is equally a 
stranger, and the whole country is extended in 
uniform wakedness, except that in the road be- 
tween Kirkaldy and Cupar, I passed for a few 
yards between two hedges. A tree might be a 
show in Scotland as a horse in Venice. At St. 
Andrew's Mr. Boswell found only one, and re- 
commended it to my notice; I told him that it 
was rough and low, or looked as if I thought 
so. This, said he, is nothing to another a few 
miles off. I was still less delighted to hear that 
another tree was not to be seen nearer. Nay, 
said a gentleman that stood by, I know but of 
this and that tree in the county. 

The Lowlands of Scotland had once un- 
doubtedly an equal portion of woods with other 
countries. Forests are every where gradually 
diminished, as architecture and cultivation pre- * 
vail by the increase of people and the introduc- 
tion of arts. But I believe few regions have 
been denuded like this, where many centuries 
must have passed in waste without the least 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 13 

thought of future supply. Davies observes in 
his account of Ireland, that no Irishman had 
ever planted an orchard. For that negligence 
some excuse might be drawn from an unsettled 
state of life, and the instability of property; but 
in Scotland possession has long been secure, and 
inheritance regular, yet it may be doubted whe- 
ther before the union any man between Edin- 
burgh and England had ever set a tree. 

Of this improvidence no other account can 
be given than that it probably began in times 
of tumult, and continued because it had begun. 
Established custom isnoteasily broken, till some 
great event shakes the whole system of things, 
and life seems to recommence upon new prin- 
ciples. That before the union the Scots had 
little trade and little money, is no valid apo- 
logy; for plantation is the least expensive of all 
methods of improvement. To drop a seed into 
the ground can cost nothing, and the trouble 
is not great of protecting the young plant, till 
it is out of danger; though it must be allowed 
to have some difficulty in places like these, 
where they have neither wood for palisades, nor 
thorns for hedges. 

Our way was over the Frith of Tay, where^ 
B 



14 A JOURNEY TO THE 

though the water was not wide, we paid four 
shillings for ferrying the chaise. In Scotland 
the necessaries of life are easily procured, but 
superfluities and elegancies are of the same price 
at least as in England, and therefore may be 
considered as much dearer. 

We stopped a while at Dundee, where I re- 
member nodiing remarkable, and mounting our 
chaise again, came about the close of the day 
to Aberbrothick. 

The monastery of Aberbrothick is of great 
renown in the history of Scotland. Its ruins 
afford ample testimony of its ancient magnifi- 
cence: Its extent might, I suppose, easily be 
found by following the walls among the grass 
and weeds, and its height is known by some 
parts yet standing. The arch of one of the 
gates is entire, and of another only so far dila- 
pidated as to diversify the appearance. A square 
apartment of great loftiness is yet standing; its 
use I could not conjecture, as its elevation was 
very disproportionate to its area. Two^orner 
towers particularly attracted our attention. Mr. 
Boswell, whose inquisitiveness is seconded by 
great activity, scrambled in at a high window, 
but found the stairs within broken, and could 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 15 

not reach the top. Of the other tower we were 
told that the inhabitants sometimes climbed it, 
but we did not immediately discern the entrance, 
and as the night was gathering upon us, thought 
proper to desist. Men skilled in architecture 
might do what we did not attempt: They might 
probably form an exact ground-plot of this ve- 
nerable edifice. They may, from some parts 
yet standing, conjecture its general form, and 
perhaps by comparing it with other buildings 
of the same kind and the same age, attain an 
idea very near to truth. I should scarcely have 
regretted my journey, had it afforded nothing 
more than the sight of Aberbrothick. 

MONTROSE. 

Leaving these fragments of magnificence, w c 
travelled on to Montrose, which we surveyed in 
the morning, and found it well built, airy, and 
clean. The townhouse is a handsome fabrick 
with a portico. We then went to view the 
English chapel, and found a small church, clean 
to a degree unknown in any other part of Scot- 
land, with commodious galleries, and what was 
yet less expected, with an organ. 

At our inn we did not find a reception such 



16 A JOURNEY TO THE 

as we thought proportionate to the commercial 
opulence of the place; but Mr. Boswell desired 
me to observe that the innkeeper was an Eng- 
lishman, and I then defended him as well as I 
could. 

When I had proceeded thus far, I had oppor- 
tunities of observing what I had never heard, 
that there were many beggars in Scotland. In 
Edinburgh the proportion is, I think, not less 
than in London, and in the smaller places it is 
far greater than in English towns of the same 
extent. It must, however, be allowed that they 
are not importunate, nor clamorous. They so- 
licit silently, or very modestly, and therefoFC 
though their behaviour may strike with more 
force the heart of a stranger, they are certainly 
in danger of missing the attention of their coun- 
trymen. Novelty has always some power, an 
unaccustomed mode of begging excites an un- 
accustomed degree of pity. But the force of 
novelty is by its own nature soon at an end; the 
efficacy of outcry and perseverance is perma- 
nent and certain. 

The road from Montrose exhibited a conti- 
nuation of the same appearances. The country 
is still naked, the hedges are of stone, and the 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 17 

fields so generally ploughed that it is hard to 
imagine where grass is found for the horses that 
till them. The harvest, which was almost ripe, 
appeared very plentiful. 

Early in the afternoon Mr. Bos well observed 
that we were at no gi'eat distance from the house 
of lord Monboddo. The magnetism of his con- 
versation easily drew us out of our way, and the 
entertainment which we received would have 
been a sufficient recompense for a much great- 
er deviation. 

The roads beyond Edinburgh, as they are less 
frequented, must be expected to grow gradually 
rougher; but they were hitherto by no means 
incommodious. We travelled on with the gentle 
pace of a Scotch driver, who having no rivals 
in expedition, neither gives himself nor his 
horses unnecessary trouble. We did not affect 
the impatience we did not feel, but were satis- 
fied with the company of each other as Avell rid- 
ing in the chaise, as sitting at an inn. The night 
and the day are equally solitary and equally 
safe; for where there are so few travellers, why 
should there be robbers? 
B 2 



18 A JOURNEY TO THE 

ABERDEEN. 

We came somewhat late to Aberdeen, and 
found the inn so full, that we had some difficul- 
ty in obtaining admission, till Mr. Boswell made 
himself known: His name overpowered all ob- 
jection, and we found a very good house and 
civil treatment. 

I received the next day a very kind letter 
from sir Alexander Gordon, whom I had for- 
merly known in London, and after a cessation 
of all intercourse for near twenty years met here 
professor of physick in the King's College. 
Such unexpected renewals of acquaintance may 
be numbered among the most pleasing inci- 
dents of life. 

The knowledge of one professor soon pro- 
cured me the notice of the rest, and I did not 
want any token of regard, being conducted 
wherever there Vv as any thing which I desired 
to see, and entertained at once with the novelty 
of the place, and the kindness of communica- 
tion. 

To write of the cities of our own island with 
the solemnity of geographical description, as if 
wc had been cast upon a newly discovered coast, 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 19 

has the appearance of very frivolous ostentation; 
yet as Scotland is little known to the greater 
part of those who may read these observations, 
it is not superfluous to relate, that under the 
name of Aberdeen are comprised two towns 
standing about a mile distant from each other, 
"but governed, I think, by the same magistrates* 

Old Aberdeen is the ancient episcopal city, 
in which are still to be seen the remains of the 
cathedral. It has the appearance of a town in 
decay, having been situated in times when com- 
merce was yet unstudied, with very little atten- 
tion to the commodities of the harbour. 

New Aberdeen has all the bustle of prosper- 
ous trade, and all the show of increasing opu- 
lence. It is built by the water side. The houses 
p.re large and lofty, and the streets spacious and 
clean. They build almost wholly with the gra- 
nite used in the new pavement of the streets of 
London, which is well known not to want hard- 
ness, yet they shape it easily. It is beautiful 
and must be very lasting. 

What particular parts of commerce are chief- 
ly exercised by the merchants of Aberdeen, I 
have not inquired. The manufacture which 
forces itself upon a stranger's eye is that of knit- 



2Q A JOURNEY TO THE 

Stockings, on which the women of the lower 
class are visibly employed. 

In each of these towns there is a college, or, 
in stricter language, a university; for in both 
there are professors of the same parts of learn- 
ing, and the colleges hold their sessions and 
confer degrees separately, with total indepen- 
dence of one on the other. 

In Old Aberdeen stands the King's College, 
of which the first president was Hector Boece, 
or Boethius, who may be justly reverenced one 
of the revivers of elegant learning. When he 
studied at Paris, he was acquainted with Eras- 
mus, who afterwards gave him a publick testi- 
mony of his esteem, by inscribing to him a 
catalogue of his works. The style of Boethius, 
though perhaps not always rigorously pure, is 
formed with great diligence upon ancient mo- 
dels, and wholly uninfected with monastick bar- 
barity. His history is written with elegance and 
vigour, but his fabulousness and credulity are 
justly blamed. His fabulousness, if he was ihe 
author of the fictions, is a fault for which no 
apology can be made; but his credulity may be 
excused in an age when all men were credu- 
lous. Learning was then rising on the world; 



AVESTERN ISLANDS. 21 

but ages so long accustomed to darkness, were 
too much dazzled with its light to see any thing 
distinctly. The first race of scholars in the fif- 
teenth century, and some time after, were, for 
the most part, learning to speak, rather than to 
think, and were therefore more studious of ele- 
gance than of truth. The contemporaries of 
Boethius thought it sufficient to know what the 
ancients had delivered. The examination of 
tenets and of facts was reserved for another 
generation. 

Boethius, as president of the university, en- 
joyed a revenue of forty Scottish marks, about 
two pounds four shillings and sixpence of ster- 
ling money. In the present age of trade and 
taxes, it is difficult even for the imagination so 
to raise the value of money, or so to diminish 
the demands of life, as to suppose four and forty 
shillings a year an honourable stipend; yet it 
was probably equal, not only to the needs, but 
to the rank of Boethius. The wealth of Eng- 
land was undoubtedly to that of Scotland more 
than five to one, and it is known that Henry the 
Eighth, among whose faults avarice was never 
reckoned, granted to Roger Ascham, as a re- 
ward of his learning, a pensiou of ten pounds a 
year. 



22 A JOURNEY TO THE 

The other, called the Marischal College, is 
in the new town. The hall is large and well 
lighted. One of its ornaments is the picture of 
Arthur Johnston, who was principal of the col- 
lege, and who holds among the Latin poets of 
Scotland the next place to the elegant Bucha- 
nan. 

In the library I was shown some curiosities; 
a Hebrew manuscript of exquisite penmanship, 
and a Latin translation of Aristotle's politicks by 
Leonardus Aretinus, written in the Roman cha- 
racter with nicety and beauty, which, as the art 
of printing has made them no longer necessary, 
are not now to be found. This was one of the 
latest performances of the transcribers, for Are- 
tinus died but about twenty years before typo- 
graphy was invented. This version has been 
printed, and may be found in libraries, but is 
little read; for the same books have been since 
translated both by Victorius and Lambinus, 
who lived in an age more cultivated; but per- 
haps owed in part to Aretinus that they w^ere 
able to excel him. Much is due to those who 
first broke the way to knowledge, and kft only 
to their successours the task of smoothing it. 

In both these colleges the methods of instruc- 



WESTERN ISLANBS. 23 

t-ion are nearly the same; the lectures differing 
only by the accidental difference of diligence, 
or ability in the professors. The students wear 
scarlet gowns and the professors black, which 
is, I believe, the academical dress in all the 
Scottish universities, except that of Edinburgh, 
where the scholars are not distinguished by any 
particular habit. In the King's College there is 
kept a publick table, but the scholars of the Ma- 
rischal College are boarded in the town. The 
expense of living is here, according to the in- 
formation that I could obtain, somewhat more 
than at St. Andrew's. 

The course of education is extended to four 
years, at the end of which those who take a de- 
gree, who are not many, become masters of 
arts, and whoever is a master, may, if he plea- 
ses, immediately commence doctor. The title 
of doctor, however, was for a considerable time 
bestowed only on physicians. The advocates 
are examined and approved by their own body; 
the ministers were not ambitious of titles, or 
were afraid of being censured for ambition; and 
the doctorate in every faculty was commonly 
given or sold into other countries. The minis- 
ters are now reconciled to distinction, and, as 



24 A JOURNEY TO THE 

it must always happen that some will excel 
others, have thought graduation a proper testi- 
mony of uncommon abilities or acquisitions. 

The indiscriminate collation of degrees has 
justly taken away that respect which they ori- 
ginally claimed as stamps by which the literary 
value of men so distinguished was authoritative- 
ly denoted. That academical honours, or any 
others, should be conferred with exact propor- 
tion to merit, is more than human judgment 
or human integrity has given reason to expect 
Perhaps degrees in universities cannot be better 
adjusted by any general rule than by the length 
of time passed in the publick profession of learn- 
ing. An English or Irish doctorate cannot be 
obtained by a very young man, and it is reason- 
able to suppose, what is likewise by experience 
commonly found true, that he who is by age 
qualified to be a doctor, has in so much time 
gained learning sufficient not to disgrace the 
title, or wit sufficient not to desire it. 

The Scotch universities hold but one term 
or session in the year. That of St. Andrew's 
continues eight months, that of Aberdeen only 
five, from the first of November to the first of 
April, 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 25 

In Aberdeen there is an English chapel, in 
which the congregation was numerous and 
splendid. The form of publick worship used by 
the church of England is in Scotland legally 
practised in licensed chapels, served by clergy- 
men of English or Irish ordination, and by tacit 
connivance quietly permitted in separate con- 
gregations supplied with ministers by the suc- 
cessours of the bishops who were deprived at 
the revolution. 

We came to Aberdeen on Saturday August 
21. On Monday we were invited into the 
townhall, where I had the freedom of the city 
given me by the Lord Provost. The honour 
conferred had all the decorations that politeness 
could add, and what I am afraid I should not 
have had to say of any city south of the Tweed, 
I found no petty officer bowing for a fee. 

The parchment containing the record of ad- 
mission, is, with the seal appending, fastened to 
a ribband, and worn for one day by the new ci- 
tizen in his hat. 

By a lady who saw us at the chapel, the Earl 
of Errol was informed of our arrival, and we 
had the honour of an invitation to his seat, called 
Slanes Castle, as I am told, improperly, from the 



^6 A JOURNEY TO THE 

castle of that name, which once stood at a place 
not far distant. 

The road beyond Aberdeen grew more stony, 
and continued equally naked of all vegetable 
decoration. We travelled over a tract of ground 
near the sea, which, not long ago, suffered a 
very uncommon and unexpected calamity. The 
sand of the shore was raised by a tempest in 
such quantities, and carried to such a distance, 
that an estate was overwhelmed and lost. Such 
and so hopeless was the barenness superinduced, 
that the owner, when he was required to pay 
the usualtax, desired rather to resign the ground. 

SLANES CASTLE, THE BULLER OF 
BUCHAN. 

We came in the afternoon to Slanes Castle, 
built upon the margin of the sea, so that the 
walls of one of the towers seem only a continu- 
ation of a perpendicular rock, the foot of which 
is beaten by the waves. To walk round the 
house seemed impracticable. From the windows 
the eye wanders over the sea that separates Scot- 
land from Norway, and when the winds beat 
with violence, must enjoy all the terrifick gran- 
deur of the tempestuous ocean. I would not 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 27 

for my amusement wish for a storm; but as 
storms, whether wished or not, will sometimes 
happen, I may say without violation of huma- 
nity, that I should willingly look out upon them 
from Slanes Castle. 

When we were about to take our leave, our 
departure was prohibited by the Countess, till 
we should have seen two places upon the coast, 
which she rightly considered as worthy of cu- 
riosity. Dun Buy, and the Buller of Buchan, to 
which Mr. Boyd very kindly conducted us. 

Dun Buy, which in Erse, is said to signify the 
Yellow Rock, is a double protuberance of stone, 
open to the main sea on one side, and parted 
from the land by a very narrow channel on the 
other. It has its name and its colour from the 
dung of innumerable sea fowls, w^hich in the 
spring choose this place as convenient for incu- 
bation, and have their eggs and their young ta- 
ken in great abundance. One of the birds that 
frequnet this rock has, as we are told, its body 
not larger than a duck's, and yet lays eggs as 
large as those of a goose. This bird is by the 
inhabitants named a Coot. That which is called 
a Coot in England, is here a Cooler. 
Upon these rocks there was nothing that could 



28 A JOURNEY TO THE 

long detain attention, and we soon turned our 
eyes to the BuUer, or Bouillor of Buchan, which 
no man can see with indifference, who has ei- 
ther sense of danger or delight in rarity. It is a 
rock perpendicularly tubulated, united on one 
side with a high shore, and on the other rising 
steep to a great height, above the main sea. 
The top is open, from which may be seen a dark 
gulf of water which flows into the cavity, 
through a breach made in the lower part of the 
enclosing rock. It has the appearance of a vast 
well bordered with a wall. The edge of the 
BuUer is not wide, and to those that walk round, 
appears very narrow. He that ventures to look 
downward sees, that if his foot should slip, he 
must fall from his dreadful elevation upon stones 
on one side or into the water on the other. We 
however went round, and were glad when the 
circuit was completed. 

When we came down to the sea, we saw some 
boats, and rowers, and resolved to explore the 
Buller at the bottom. We entered the arch, 
which the water had made, and found ourselves 
in a place, which, though w'e could not think 
ourselves in danger, we could scarcely survey 
without some recoil of the mind. The bason 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 29 

in which we floated was nearly circular, perhaps 
thirty yards in diameter. We were enclosed by 
a natural wall, rising steep on every side to a 
height which produced the idea of insurmount- 
able confinement. The interception of all la- 
teral light caused a dismal gloom. R und us 
was a perpendicular rock, above us the distant 
sky, and below an unknown profundity of wa- 
ter. If I had any malice against a walking spi- 
rit, instead of laying him in the Red Sea, I 
would condemn him to reside in the BuUer of 
Buchan. 

But terror without danger is only one of the 
sports of fancy, a voluntary agitation of the 
mhid that is permitted no longer than it pleases. 
We were soon at leisure to examine the place 
with minute inspection, and found many cavi- 
ties which as the watermen told us, went back- 
ward to a depth which they had never explo- 
red. Their extent we had not time to try; they 
are said to serve different purposes. Ladies 
come hither sometimes in the summer with 
collations, and smugglers make them store- 
houses for clandestine merchandise. It is hard- 
ly to be doubted but the pirates of ancient times 
often used them as magazines of arms, or re- 
positories of pknider. 

c 2 



30 A JOURNEY TO THE 

To the little vessels used by the northern 
rowers, the Buller may have served as a shelter 
from storms, and perhaps as a retreat from ene- 
mies; the entrance might have been stopped, 
or guarded with little difficulty, and though the 
vessels that were stationed within would have 
been battered with stones showered on them 
from above, yet the crews would have lain safe 
in the caverns. 

Next morning we continued our journey, 
pleased with our reception at Slanes Castle, of 
which we had now leisure to recount the gran- 
deur and the elegance; for our way afforded us 
few topicks of conversation. The ground was 
neither uncultivated nor unfruitful; but it was 
still all arable. Of flocks or herds there was no 
appearance. I had now travelled two hundred 
miles in Scotland, and seen only one tree not 
younger than myself. 

BANFF. 
We dined this day at the house of Mr. Fra- 
zer of Streichton who showed us in his grounds 
some stones yet standing of a druidical circle, 
and what I began to think more worthy of no- 
tice, some forest trees of full growth. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 3 1 

At night we came to Banff, where I remem- 
ber nothing that particularly claimed my atten- 
tion. The ancient towns of Scotland have ge- 
nerally an appearance unusual to Englishmen. 
The houses, whether great or small, are for the 
most part built of stones. Their ends are now 
and then next the streets, and the entrance into 
them is very often by a flight of steps which 
reaches up to the second story. The floor, which 
is level with the ground, being entered only by 
stairs descending within the house. 

The art of joining squares of glass with lead 
is little used in Scotland, and in some places is 
totally forgotten. The frames of their \vindows 
are all of wood. They are more frugal of their 
glass than the English, and will often, in houses 
not otherwise mean, compose a square of two 
pieces, not joining like cracked glass, but with 
one edge laid perhaps half an inch over the 
other. Their windows do not move upon hin- 
ges, but are pushed up and drawn down in 
grooves, yet they are seldom accommodated 
with weights and pulleys. He that would have 
his window open must hold it with his hand, 
unless, what may be sometimes found among 
good contrivers, there be a nail, which he may 
stick into a hole, to keep it from falling. 



32 A JOURNEY TO THE 

What cannot be done without some uncom- 
mon trouble or particular expedient will not 
often be done at all. The incommodiousness of 
the Scotch windows keeps them very closely 
shut. The necessity of ventilating human ha- 
bitations has not yet been found by our north- 
ern neighbours; and even in houses well built 
and elegantly furnished, a stranger may be 
sometimes forgiven, if he allows himself to 
wish for fresher air. 

These diminutive observations seem to take 
away something from the dignity of writing, 
and therefore are never communicated but with 
hesitation and a little fear of abasement and 
contempt. But it must be remembered, that 
life consists not of a series of illustrious actions, 
or elegant enjoyments; the greater part of our 
time passes in compliance with necessities, in 
the performance of daily duties, in the removal 
of small inconveniencies, in the procurement of 
petty pleasures; and we are well or ill at ease, 
as the main stream of life glides on smoothly, 
or is ruffled by small obstacles and frequent in- 
terruption. The true state of every nation is 
the state of common life. The manners of a 
people are not to be found in the schools of 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 33 

learning, or the palaces of greatness, where the 
national character is obscured or obliterated by 
travel or instruction, by philosophy or vanity; 
nor is publick happiness to be estimated by the 
assemblies of the gay, or the banquets of the 
rich. The great mass of nations is neither rich 
nor gay: They whose aggregate constitutes the 
people are found in the streets and the villages, 
in the shops and farms; and from them collec- 
tively considered must the measure of general 
prosperity be taken. As they approach to de- 
licacy a nation is refined; as their convenien- 
cies are multiplied, a nation, at least a commer- 
eial nation, must be denominated wealthy. 

ELGIN. 
Finding nothing to detain us at Banff, we set 
out in the morning, and having breakfasted at 
Cullen, about noon came to Elgin, where in the 
inn, that we supposed the best, a dinner was set 
before us, which we could not eat. This was 
the first time, and, except one, the last, that I 
found any reason to complain of a Scottish ta- 
ble; and such disappointments, I suppose, must 
be expected in every country where there is no 
great frequency of travellers. 



34 A JOURNEY TO THE 

The ruins of the cathedral of Elgin afforded 
us another proof of the waste of reformation. 
There is enough yet remaining to show that it 
was once magnificent. Its whole plot is easily 
traced. On the north side of the choir, the 
chapter-house, which is roofed with an arch of 
stone, remains entire; and on the south side, 
another mass of building, which we could not 
enter, is preserved by the care of the family of 
Gordon; but the body of the church is a mass 
of fragments. 

A paper was here put into our hands, which 
deduced from sufficient authorities the history 
of this venerable ruin. The church of Elgin 
had, in the intestine tumults of the barbarous 
ages, been laid waste by the irruption of a High- 
land chief, whom the bishop had offended; but 
it w^as gradually restored to the state, of which 
the traces may be now discerned, and was at 
last not destroyed by the tumultuous violence of 
Knox, but more shamefully suffered to dilapidate 
by deliberate robbery and frigid indifference. 
There is still extant, in the books of the council, 
an order, of which I cannot remember the date, 
but which was doubtless issued after the refor- 
mation, directing that the lead, which covers the 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 35 

two cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen, shall be 
taken away, and converted into money for the 
support of the army. A Scotch army was in 
those times very cheaply kept; yet the lead of 
two churches must have borne so small a pro- 
portion to any military expense, that it is hard not 
to believe the reason alleged to be merely popu- 
lar, and the money intended for some private 
purse. The order, however, was obeyed; the two 
churches were stripped, and the lead was shipped 
to be sold in Holland. I hope every reader will 
rejoice that this cargo of sacrilege was lost at sea. 

Let us not, however, make too much haste to 
despise our neighbours. Our own cathedrals 
are mouldering by unregarded dilapidation. It 
seems to be part of the despicable philosophy of 
the time to despise monuments of sacred magni- 
ficence, and we are in danger of doing that de- 
liberately, which the Scots did not do but in the 
unsettled state of an imperfect constitution. 

Those who had once uncovered the cathe- 
drals never wished to cover them again: and 
being thus made useless, they were first neglect- 
ed, and perhaps, as the stone was wanted, af- 
terwards demolished. 

Elgin seems a place of little trade, and thinly 



36 A JOURNEY TO THE 

inhabited. The episcopal cities of Scotland, I be- 
lieve, generally fell with their churches, though 
some of them have since recovered by a situa- 
tion convenient for commerce. Thus Glasgow, 
though it has no longer an archbishop, has risen 
beyond its original state by the opulence of its 
traders; and Aberdeen, though its ancient stock 
had decayed, flourishes by a new shoot in an- 
other place. 

In the chief street of Elgin, the houses jut 
over the lowest story, like the old buildings of 
timber in London, but with greater prominence; 
so that there is sometimes a walk for a consi- 
derable length under a cloister, or portico, which 
is now indeed frequently broken, because the 
new houses have another form, but seems to 
have been uniformly continued in the old city. 

FORES. CALDER. FORT GEORGE. 
We went forwards the same day to Fores, 
the town to which Macbeth was travelling, 
when he met the weird sisters in his way. This 
to an Englishman is classick ground. Our ima- 
ginations were heated, and our thoughts recal- 
led to their old amusements. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 37 

We had now a prelude to the Highlands. We 
began to leave fertility and culture behind us, 
and saw for a great length of road nothing but 
heath; yet at Fochabers, a seat belonging to 
the duke of Gordon, there is an orchard, which 
in Scotland I had never seen before, with some 
timber trees, and a plantation of oaks. 

At Fores we found good accommodation, 
but nothing worthy of particular remark, and 
next morning entered upon the road, on which 
Macbeth heard the fatal prediction; but we tra~ 
veiled on not interrupted by promises of king- 
doms, and came to Nairn, a royal burgh, which, 
if once it flourished, is now in a state of miser- 
able decay; but I know not whether its chief 
annual magistrate has not still the title of lord 
provost. 

At Nairn we may fix the verge of the High- 
lands; for here I first saw peat fires, and first 
heard the Erse language. We had no motive 
to stay longer than to breakfast, and went for- 
ward to the house of Mr. Macaulay, the minis- 
ter who published an account of St. Kilda, and 
by his direction visited Calder Castle, from 
which Macbeth drew his second title. It has 

been formerly a place of strength. The draw- 

D 



38 A JOURNEY TO THE 

bridge is still to be seen, but the moat is now 
dry. The tower is very ancient. Its walls are of 
great thickness, arched on the top with stone, 
and surrounded with battlements. The rest of 
the house is later, though far from modern. 

We were favoured by a gentleman, who lives 
in the castle, with a letter to one of the officers 
at Fort George, which being the most regular 
fortification in the island, well deserves the no- 
tice of a traveller, who has never travelled be- 
fore. We went thither next day, found a very 
kind reception, were led round the works by a 
gentleman, who explained the use of every part, 
and entertained by sir Eyre Coote, the gover- 
nour, with such elegance of conversation as left 
us no attention to the delicacies of his table. 

Of Fort George I shall not attempt to give 
any account. I cannot delineate it scientifically, 
and a loose and popular description is of use 
only, when the imagination is to be amused. 
There was everywhere an appearance of the 
Utmost neatness and regularity. But my suf- 
frage is of little value, because this and Fort 
Augustus are the only garrisons that I ever saw. 

We did not regret the time spent at the fort, 
tliough in consequence of our delay we came 



WESTERN ISLAND^. 59 

somewhat late to Inverness, the town which may 
properly be called the capital of the Highlands. 
Hither the inhabitants of the inland parts come 
to be supplied with what they cannot make for 
themselves. Hither the young nymphs of the 
mountains and valleys are sent for education, 
and as far as my observation has reached, ate 
not sent in vain. 

INVERNESS. 

Inverness was the last place which had a re* 
gular communication by high roads with the 
southern counties. All the ways beyond it have, 
1 believe, been made by the soldiers in this cen- 
tury. At Inverness therefore Cromwell, when 
he subdued Scotland, stationed a garrison, as at 
the boundary of the Highlands. The soldiers 
seem to have incorporated afterwards with the 
inhabitants, and to have peopled the place witli 
an English race; for the language of this town 
has been long considered as peculiarly elegant. 

Here is a castle, called the castle of Macbeth, 
the walls of which are yet standing. It was no 
very capacious edifice, but stands upon a rock 
so high and steep, that I think it was once not 
accessible, but by the help of ladders, or a 



4,0 A JOURNEY TO THE 

bridge. Over against it, on another hill, was a 
fort built by Cromwell, now totally demolished; 
for no faction of Scotland loved the name of 
Cromwell, or had any desire to continue his 
memory. 

Yet what the Romans did to other nations, 
was in a great degree done by Cromwell to the 
Scots; he civilized them by conquest, and in- 
troduced by useful violence the arts of peace. 
I was told at Aberdeen that the people learned 
Prom Cromwell's soldiers to make shoes and to 
plant kail. 

How they lived without kail, it is not easy to 
.^'uess: they cultivate hardly any other plant 
for common tables, and when they had not kail 
they probably had nothing. The numbers that 
go barefoot are still sufficient to show that shoes 
may be spared; they are not yet considered as 
necessaries of life; for tall boys, not othervv ise 
meanly dressed, run without them in the streets 
and in the islands; the sons of gentlemen pass 
several of their first rears with naked feet. 

I know not whether it be not peculiar to the 
Scots to have attained the liberal, without the 
manual arts, to have excelled in ornamental 
knowledge, and to liave wanted not only the 



WESTERN ISLANBS. 41 

elegancies, but the conveniencies of common 
life. Literature, soon after its revival, found its 
way to Scotland, and from the middle of the 
sixteenth century, almost to the middle of the 
seventeenth, the politer studies were very dili 
gently pursued. The Latin poetry of '' Deli- 
'* ciae Poetarum Scotorum" would have done 
honour to any nation, at least till the publica- 
tion of " May's Supplement" the English had 
very little to oppose. 

Yet men thus ingenious and inquisitive were 
content to live in total ignorance of the trades 
by which human wants are supplied, and to sup- 
ply them by the grossest means. Till the union 
made them acquainted with English manners, 
the culture of their lands was unskilful, and 
their domestick life unformed; their tables were 
coarse as the feasts of Eskimaux, and their 
houses filthy as the cottages of Hottentots. 

Since they have known that their condition 
was capable of improvement, their progress in 
useful knowledge has been rapid and uniform. 
What remains to be done they will quickly do, 
and then wonder, like me, why that which was 
so necessary and so easy was so long delayed. 
But they must be for ever content to owe to the 
D2 



4i A JOU RNEY TO THE 

English that elegance and culture, which, if 
they had been vigilant and active, perhaps the 
English might have owed to them. 

Here the appearance of life began to alter. I 
had seen a few women with plaids at Aberdeen; 
but at Inverness the Highland manners arc 
common. There is I think a kirk, in which on- 
ly the Erse language is used. There is likewise 
an English chapel, but meanly built, where on 
Sunday we saw a very decent congregation. 

We were now to bid farewell to the luxury 
of travelling, and to enter a country upon which 
perhaps no wheel has ever rolled. We could 
indeed have used ou/postchaise one day long- 
er, along the military road to Fort Augustus, 
but we could have hired no horses beyond In- 
verness, and we were not so sparing of our- 
selves, as to lead them, merely that .we might 
have one day longer the indulgence of a car- 
riage. 

At Inverness, therefore, we procured three 
horses for ourselves and a servant, and one more 
for our baggage, which was no very heavy load. 
We found in the course of our journey the con- 
venience of having disencumbered ourselves, 
by laying aside whatever wc could spare; for it 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 45 

as not to be imagined without experience, how 
in climbing crags, and treading bogs, and wind- 
ing through narrow and obstructed passages, a 
little bulk will hinder, and a little weight will 
burden; or how often a man that has pleased 
himself at home with his own resolution, will, 
in the hour of darkness and fatigue, be content 
to leave behind him every thing but himself. 

LOUGH NESS. 
We took two Highlanders to run beside us, 
partly to show us the way, and partly to take 
back from the sea side the horses, of which they 
were the owners. One of them was a man of 
great liveliness and activity, of whom his com- 
panion said, that he would tire any horse in In- 
verness. Both of them were civil and ready- 
handed. Civility seems part of the national 
character of Highlanders. Every chieftain is a 
monarch, and politeness, the natural product of 
royal government, is diffused from the* laird 
through the whole clan. But they are not com- 
monly dexterous: their narrowness of life con- 
fines them to a few operations, and they are ac- 
customed to endure little wants more than to 
i^move them. 



44 A JOURNEY TO THE 

We mounted our steeds on the thirteenth of 
August, and directed our guides to conduct us 
to Fort Augustus. It is built at the head of 
Lough Ness, of which Inverness stands at the 
outlet. The way between them has been cut 
by the soldiers, and the greater part of it runs 
along a rock, levelled with great labour and 
exactness, near the water-side. 

Most of this day's journey was very pleasant. 
The day, though bright, was not hot; and the 
appearance of the country, if I had not seen the 
Peak, would have been wholly new. We went 
upon a surface so hard and level, that we had 
little care to hold the bridle, and were therefore 
at full leisure for contemplation. On the left 
were high and steep rocks shaded with birch, 
the hardy native of the north, and covered with 
fern or heath. On the right the limpid waters 
of Lough Ness were beating their bank, and 
waving their surface by a gentle agitation. Be- 
yond them were rocks sometimes covered with 
verdure, and sometimes towering in horrid na* 
kedness. Now and then we espied a little corn- 
field, which served to impress more strongly 
the general barrenness. 

Lough Ness is about twenty- four miles long. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 45 

and from one mile to two miles broad. It is re- 
markable that Boethius, in his description of 
Scotland, gives it twelve miles of breadth. 
When historians or geographers exhibit false 
accounts of places far distant, they may be for- 
given, because they can tell but what they are 
told; and that their accounts exceed the truth 
may be justly supposed, because most men ex- 
aggerate to others, if not to themselves: but 
Boethius lived at no great distance; if he never 
saw the lake, he must have been very incuri- 
ous, and if he had seen it, his veracity yielded 
to very slight temptations. 

Lough Ness, though not twelve miles broad, 
is a very remarkable diffusion of water without 
islands. It fills a large hollow betweeh two 
ridges of high rocks, being supplied partly by 
the torrents which fall into it on either side, 
and partly, as is supposed, by springs at the 
bottom. Its water is remarkably clear and plea- 
sant, and is imagined by the natives to be me- 
dicinal. We were told, that it is in some places 
a hundred and forty fathom deep, a profundity 
scarcely credible, and which probably those that 
relate it have never sounded. Its fish are sal- 
mon, trout, and pike. 



4S A JOURNEY TO THE 

It was said at Fort Augustus, that LougU 
Ness is open in the hardest winters, though a 
lake not far from it is covered with ice. In dis- 
cussing these exceptions from the course of 
nature, the first question is, whether the fact be 
justly stated? That which is strange is delight- 
ful, and a pleasing error is not wilhngly detect- 
ed. Accuracy of narration is not very common, 
and there are few so rigidly philosophical, as 
not to represent as perpetual, what is only fre- 
quent, or as constant, what is really casual. If 
it be true that Lough Ness never freezes, it is 
either sheltered by its high banks from the cold 
blasts, and exposed only to those winds which 
have more power to agitate than congeal; or it 
is kept in perpetual motion by the rush of 
streams from the rocks that enclose it. Its pro- 
fundity, though it should be such as is repre- 
sented, can have little part in this exemption; 
for though deep wells are not frozen, because 
their water is secluded from the external air, 
3^et where a wide surface is exposed to the full 
influence of a freezing atmosphere, I know not 
why the depth should keep it open. Natural 
philosophy is now one of the favourite studies 
of the Scottish nation, and Lough Ness well 
deser\^es to be diligently examined. 



WESTERN ISLANBS. 47 

Tlie road on which we travelled, and which 
was itself a source of entertainment, is made 
along the rock, in the direction of the lough, 
sometimes by breaking off protuberances, and 
sometimes by cutting the great mass of stone 
to a considerable depth. The fragments are 
piled in a loose wall on either side, with aper- 
tures left at very short spaces, to give a passage 
to the wintry currents. Part of it is bordered 
with low trees, from which our guides gathered 
nuts, and would have had the appearance of an 
English lane, except that an English lane is al- 
most always dirty. It has been made with great 
labour, but has this advantage, that it cannot^ 
without equal labour, be broken up. 

Within our sight there were goats feeding or 
playing. The mountains have red deer, but 
they came not within view; and if what is said 
of their vigilance and subtlety be true, they 
have some claim to that palm of wisdom, which 
the eastern philosopher, whom Alexander in- 
terrogated, gave to those beasts which live fur- 
thest from men. 

Near the way, by the water side, we espied 
a cottage. This was the first Highland hut that 
I had seen; and as our business was with life 



48 A JOURNEY TO THE 

and manners, we were willing to visit it. To 
enter a habitation without leave, seems to be 
not considered here as rudeness or intrusion. 
The old laws of hospitality still give this license 
to a stranger. 

A hut is constructed with loose stones, ranged 
for the most part with some tendency to circu- 
larity. It must be placed where the wind can- 
not act upon it with violence, because it has 
no cement; and where the water will run ea- 
sily away, because it has no floor but the naked 
ground. The wall, which is commonly about 
six feet high, declines from the perpendicular a 
little inward. Such rafters as can be procured 
are then raised for a roof, and covered with 
heath, which makes a strong and warm thatch, 
kept from flying off* by ropes of twisted heath, 
of which the ends, reaching from the centre of 
the thatch to the top of the wall, are held firm 
by the weight of a large stone. No light is ad- 
mitted but at the entrance, and through a hole 
in the thatch, which gives vent to the smoke. 
This hole is not directly over the fire, lest the 
rain should extinguish it; and the smoke there- 
fore naturally fills the place before it escapes. 
Such is the general structure of the houses, iii 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 49 

which one of the nations of this opulent and 
powerful island has been hitherto content to 
live. Huts, however, are not more uniform 
than palaces; and this which we were inspect- 
ing was very far from one of the meanest, for it 
was divided into several apartments; and its 
inhabitants possessed such property as a pastoral 
poet might exalt into riches. 

When we entered, we found an old woman 
boiling goat's flesh in a kettle. She spoke little 
English, but we had interpreters at hand; and 
she was willing enough to display her whole 
system of economy. She has five children, of 
which none are yet gone from her. The eldest, 
a boy of thirteen, and her husband, who is 
eighty years old, were at work in the wood. 
Her two next sons were gone to Inverness to 
buy meal, by which oatmeal is always meant. 
Meal she considered as expensive food, and 
told us, that in Spring, when the goats gave 
milk, the children could live without it. She 
is mistress of sixty goats, and I saw many kids 
in an enclosure at the end of her house. She 
had also some poultry. By the lake we saw a 
potato garden, and a small spot of ground on 
which stood four shucks, containing each twelve 



50 A JOURNEY TO THE 

sheaves of barley. She has also this from the 
labour of their own hands, and for what is ne- 
cessary to be bought, her kids and her chickens 
are sent to market. 

With the true pastoral hospitality, she asked 
us to sit down and drink whisky. She is reli- 
gious, and though the kirk is four miles off, 
probably eight English miles, she goes thither 
every Sunday. We gave her a shilling, and she 
begged snuff; for snuff is the luxury of a High- 
land cottage. 

Soon afterwards we came to the General's 
Hut, so called, because it was the temporary 
abode of Wade, while he superintended the 
works upon the road. It is now a house of en- 
tertainment for passengers, and we found it not 
ill stocked with provisions. 

FALL OF FIERS. 
Towards evening we crossed by a bridge, the 
river which makes the celebrated Fall of Fiers. 
The country at the bridge strikes the imagina- 
tion with all the gloom and grandeur of Sibe- 
rian solitude. The way makes a flexure, and 
the mountains, covered with trees, rise at once 
on the left hand and in the front. We desired 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 51 

Giir guides to show us the fall, and dismounting 
clambered over very rugged crags, till I began 
to wish that our curiosity might have been gra- 
tified with less trouble and danger. We came 
at last to a place where we could overlook the 
river, and saw a channel torn, as it seems, 
through black piles of stone, by whiqh the 
stream is obstructed and broken, till it comes to 
a very steep descent, of such dreadful depth, 
that we were naturally inclined to turn aside 
our eyes. 

But we visited the place at an unseasonable 
time, and found it divested of its dignity and 
terror. Nature never gives every thing at once. 
A long continuance of dry weather, which made 
the rest of the way easy and delightful, deprived 
us of the pleasure expected from the Fall of 
Fiers. The river having now no water but 
what the springs supply, showed us only a swift 
current, clear and shallow, fretting over the as- 
perities of the rocky bottom, and we were left to 
exercise our thoughts, by endeavouring to con- 
ceive the effect of a thousand streams poured 
from the mountains into one channel, struggling 
for expansion in a narrow passage, exasperated 
by rocks rising in their way, and at last dis- 



52 A JOURNEY TO THE 

charging all their violence of waters by a sudden 
fall through the horrid chasm. 

The way now grew less easy, descending by 
an uneven declivity, but without either dirt or 
danger. We did not arrive at Fort Augustus 
till it was late. Mr. Boswell, who, between his 
father's merit and his own, is sure of reception 
wherever he comes, sent a servant before to beg 
admission and entertainment for that night. 
Mr. Trapaud, the governor, treated us with that 
courtesy which is so closely connected with the 
niilitary character. He came out to meet us 
beyond the gates, and apologized that, at so late 
an hour, the rules of a garrison suffered him to 
give us entrance only at the postern. 

FORT AUGUSTUS. 
In the morning we viewed the fort, which is 
much less than that of St. George, and is said 
to be commanded by the neighbouring hills. It 
was not long ago taken by the Highlanders. 
But its situation seems well chosen for plea- 
sure, if not for strength; it stands at the head of 
the lake, and, by a sloop of sixty tons, is sup- 
plied from Inverness with great convenience. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 53 

We v/ere now to cross the Highlands towards 
the western coast, and to content ourselves with 
such accommodations, as a way so little fre- 
quented could afibrd. The journey was not 
formidable, for it was but of two days, very 
unequally divided, because the only house, 
where we could be entertained, was not further 
off than a third of the way. We soon came to 
a high hill, which we mounted by a military 
road, cut in traverses, so that as we went upon 
a higher stage, we saw the baggage following 
us below in a contrary direction. To make this 
way, the rock has been hewn to a level with 
labour that might have broken ^e perseverance 
of a Roman le^'ion. 

o 

The country is totally denuded of its wood, 
but the stumps both of oaks and firs, which are 
still found, show that it has been once a forest 
of large timber. I do not remember that we 
saw any animals, but we were told that, in the 
mountains, there are stags, roebucks, goats, 
and rabbits. 

We did not perceive that this tract was pos- 
sessed by human beings, except that once we 
saw a corn field, in which a lady was walking 
with some gentlemen. Their house was cer- 

E2 



54 A JOURNEY TO THE 

tainly at no great distance, but so situated that 
we could not descry it. 

Passing on through the dreariness of soli- 
tude, we found a party of soldiers from the fort 
working on the road, under the superintend- 
ence of a Serjeant. We told them how kindly 
we had been treated at the garrison, and as we 
were enjoying the benefit of their labours, beg- 
ged leave to show our gratitude by a small pre- 
sent. 

ANOCH. 

Early in the afternoon we came to Anoch, a 
village in Glenmoilison of three huts, one of 
which is distinguished by a chimney. Here we 
were to dine and lodge, and were conducted 
through the first room, that had the chimney, 
into another lighted by a small glass window. 
The landlord attended us with great civility, 
and told us Vv^hat he could give us to eat and 
drink. I found some books on a shelf, among 
which were a volume or more of Prideaux's 
Connection. 

This I mentioned as something unexpected, 
and perceived that 1 did not please him. I 
praised the propriety of his language, and was 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 55 

answered that I need not wonder, for he had 
learned it by grammar. 

By subsequent opportunities of observation 
I found that my host^s diction had nothing pe- 
culiar. Those Highlanders that can speak En- 
glish commonly speak it well, with few of the 
words, and little of the tone by which a Scotch- 
man is distinguished. Their language seems to 
have been learned in the army or the navy, or 
by some communication with those who could 
give them good examples of accent and pro- 
nunciation. By their Lowland neighbours they 
would not willingly be taught, for they have 
long considered them as a mean and degene- 
rate race. These prejudices are wearing fast 
away; but so much of them still remains, that 
when I asked a very learned minister in the 
islands which they considered as their most sa- 
vage clans, " Those," said he, '* that live next 
" the Lowlands." 

As we came hither early in the day, we had 
time sufficient to survey the place. The house 
was built like other huts of loose stones, but 
the part in which we dined and slept was lined 
with turf and wattled with twigs, which kept 
the earth from falling. Near it was a garden of 



56 A JOURNEY TO THE 

turnips and a field of potatoes. It stands in a 
glen, or valley, pleasantly watered by a wind- 
ing river. But this country, however it may 
delight the gazer or amuse the naturalist, is of 
no great advantage to its owners. Our landlord 
told us of a gentleman who possesses lands 
eighteen Scotch miles in length and three in 
breadth, a space containing at least a hundred 
square English miles. He has raised his rents 
to the danger of depopulating his farms, and 
he fells his timber, and by exerting every art of 
augmentation, has obtained an yearly revenue 
of four hundred pounds, which for a hundred 
square miles is three halfpence an acre. 

Some time after dinner we were surprised by 
the entrance of a young woman, not inelegant 
either in mien or dress, who asked us whether 
we would have tea? We found that she was the 
daughter of our host, and desired her to make 
it. Her conversation, like her appearance, v»'as 
gentle and pleasing. We knew that the girls of 
the Highlands are all gentlewomen, and treated 
her with great respect, which she received as 
customary and due, and was neither elated by 
it nor confused, but repaid my civilities without 
embarrassment, and told me how much I ho- 
noured her country by coming to survey it. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 57 

She had been at Inverness to gain the com- 
mon female qualifications, and had, like her fa- 
ther, the English pronunciation. I presented 
her with a book, which I happened to have 
about me, and should not be pleased to think 
that she forgets me. 

In the evening the soldiers, w^hom we had 
passed on the road, came to spend at our inn 
the little money that we had given them. They 
had the true military impatience of coin in their 
pockets, and had marched iit least six miles 
to find the first place where liquor could be 
bought. Having never been before in a place 
so wild and unfrequented, I was glad of their 
arrival, because I knew that we had made them 
friends, and to gain still more of their good 
will, we went to them, where they were ca- 
rousing in the barn, and added something to 
our former gift. All that we gave was not much, 
but it detained them in the barn, either merry 
or quarrelling, the whole night, and in the 
morning they went back to their work, with 
great indignation at the bad qualities of whisky. 

We had gained so much the favour of our 
host, that when we left his house in the morn- 
ing, he walked by us a great way, and enter- 



58 A JOURNEY TO THE 

tained us with conversation both on his own 
condition and that of the country. His life 
seemed to be merely pastoral, except that he 
diifered from some of the ancient Nomades in 
having a settled dwellinge His wealth consists 
of one hundred sheep, as many goats, twelve 
milch cows, and twenty-eight beeves ready for 
the drovers. 

From him we first heard of the general dissa- 
tisfaction, which is now driving the Highlanders 
into the other hemisphere; and when I asked him 
whether they would stay at home if they were 
well treated, he ansv\^ered with indignation, that 
no man willingly left his native country. Of the 
farm which he himself occupied, the rent had, 
in twenty-five years, been advanded from five 
to twenty pounds, which he found himself so 
little able to pay, that he would be glad to try his 
fortune in some other place. Yet he owned the 
reasonableness of raising the Highland rents in 
a certain degree, and declared himself willing 
to pay ten pounds for the ground which he had 
formerly had for five. 

Our host having amused us for a time, resign- 
ed us to our guides. The journey of this day 
was long, not that the distance was great, but 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 59 

that the way was difficult. We were now in 
the bosom of the Highlands, with full leisure to 
contemplate the appearance and properties of 
mountainous regions, such as have been, in 
many countries, the last shelters of national dis- 
tress, and are everywhere the scenes of adven- 
tures, stratagems, surprises, and escapes. 

Mountainous countries are not passed but 
with difficulty, not merely from the labour of 
climbing, for to climb is not always necessary^ 
but because that which is not mountain is com- 
monly bog, through which the way must be 
picked with caution. Where there are hills 
there is much rain, and the torrents pouring 
down into the intermediate spaces seldom find 
so ready an* outlet as not to stagnate till they 
have broken the texture of the ground. 

Of the hills, which our journey offered to the 
view on either side, we did not take the height, 
nor did we see any that astonished us with their 
loftiness. Towards the summit of ane there 
was a white spot which I should have called a 
naked rock, but the guides, who had better 
eyes, and were acquainted with the phenomena 
of the country, declared it to be snow. It had 
already lasted to the end of August, and was 



ee A JOURNEY TO THE 

likely to maintain its contest with the sun till 
it should be reenforced by winter. 

The height of mountains philosophically con- 
sidered is properly computed from the surface 
of the next sea; but as it affects the eye or ima- 
gination of the passenger, as it makes either a 
spectacle or an obstruction, it must be reckon- 
ed from the place where the rise begins to make 
a considerable angle with the plain. In extensive 
continents the land may, by gradual elevation, 
attain great height, without any other appear- 
ance than that of a plane gently inclined; and 
if a hill placed upon such raised ground be de- 
scribed as having its altitude equal to the whole 
space above the sea, the representation will be 
fallacious. 

These mountains may be properly enough 
measured from the inland base, for it is not 
much above the sea. As we advanced at even- 
ing towards the western coast, I did not observe 
the declivity to be greater than is necessary for 
the discharge of the inland waters. 

We passed many rivers and rivulets, which 
commonly ran with a clear shallow stream over 
a hard pebbly bottom. These channels, which 
seem so much wider than the water that they 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 61 

convey would naturally require, are formed by 
the violence of wintry floods, produced by the 
accumulation of innumerable streams that fall 
in rainy weather from the hills, and bursting 
away with resistless impetuosity, make them- 
selves a passage proportionate to their mass. 

Such capricious and temporary waters can- 
not be expected to produce many fish. The 
rapidity of the wintry deluge sweeps them 
away, and the scantiness of the summer stream 
would hardly sustain them above the ground. 
This is the reason why in fording the northern 
rivers no fishes are seen, as in England, wan- 
dering in the water. 

Of the hills many may be called with Ho- 
mer's Ida '' abundant in springs," but few can 
deserve the epithet which he bestows upon Pe- 
lion by " waving their leaves." They exhibit 
very little variety; being almost wholly covered 
with dark heath, and even that seems to be 
checked in its growth. What is not heath is 
nakedness, a little diversified by now and then 
a stream rushing down the steep. An eye ac- 
customed to flowery pastures and waving har^ 
vcBts is astonished and repelled by this wide 
extent of hopeless sterility. The appearance is 



62 A JOURNEY TO THE 

that of matter incapable of form or usefulness, 
dismissed by nature from her care and disinhe- 
rited of her favours, left in its original elemen- 
tal state, or quickened only with one sullen 
power of useless vegetation. 

It will very readily occur, that this uniformi- 
ty of barrenness can afford very little amuse- 
ment to the traveller; that it is easy to sit at 
home and conceive rocks and heath, and water- 
falls; and that these journeys are useless labours, 
which neither impregnate the imagination, nor 
enlarge the understanding. It is true that of far 
the greater part of things, we must content 
ourselves with such knowledge as description 
may exhibit or analogy supply; but it is true 
likewise, that these ideas are always incomplete, 
and that at least, till we have compared them 
with realities, we do not know them to be just. 
As we see more, we become possessed of more 
certainties, and consequently gain more princi- 
ples of reasoning, and found a wider basis of 
analogy. 

Regions mountainous and wild, thinly inha- 
bited, and little cultivated, make a great part 
of the earth, and he that has never seen them, 
must live unacquainted with much of the face 



WESTERN ISLANDS. - 63 

of nature, and with one of the great scenes of 
human existence. 

As the day advanced towards noon, we en- 
tered a narrow valley not very flowery, but suf- 
ficiently verdant. Our guidtss told us, that the 
horses could not travel all day without rest or 
meat, and intreated us to stop here, because n^ 
grass would be found in any other place. The 
request was reasonable and the argument co- 
gent. We therefore willingly dismounted and 
diverted ourselves as the place gave us oppor- 
tunity. 

I sat down on a bank, such as a writer of 
romance might have delighted to feign. I had 
indeed no trees to whisper over my head, but 
a clear rivulet streamed at my feet. The d>ay 
was calm, the air soft, and all was rudeness, 
silence, and solitude. Before me, and on either 
side, were high hills, which by hindering the 
eye from ranging, forced the mind to find en- 
tertainment for itself. Whether I spent the hour 
well I know not; for here I first conceived the 
thought of this narration. 

We were in this place at ease and by choice, 
and had no evils to suffer or to fear; yet the 
imaginations excited bv the view of an unknown 




64 A JOURNEY TO THE 

and untravellcd wilderness are not such as arise 
in the artificial solitude of parks and gardens, 
a flattering notion of selfsufficiency, a placid 
indulgence of voluntary delusions, a secure ex^ 
pansion of the fancy, or a cool concentration 
of the mental powers. The phantoms which 
haunt a desert are want, and misery, and dan- 
ger; the evils of dereliction rush upon the 
thoughts; man is made unwillingly acquainted 
with his own weakness, and meditation shows 
him only how little he can sustain, and how lit- 
tle he can perform. There were no traces of 
inhabitants, except perhaps a rude pile of clods 
called a summer hut, in which a herdsman had 
rested in the favourable seasons. Whoever had 
been in the place where I then sat, unprovided 
with provisions and ignorant of the country, 
might, at least before the roads were made, 
have wandered among the rocks, till he had 
perished with hardship, before he could have 
found either food or shelter. Yet what are these 
hillocks to the ridges of Taurus, or these spots 
of wildness to the deserts of America? 

It was not long before we were invited to 
mount, and continued our Journey along tlae 
side of a lough, kept full by many streams, 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 65 

which with more or less rapidity and noise 
crossed the road from the hills on the other 
hand. These currents, in their diminished state, 
after several dry months, afford, to one who 
has always lived in level countries, an unusual 
and delightful spectacle; but in the rainy sea- 
son, such as every winter may be expected to 
bring, must precipitate an impetuous and tre- 
mendous flood. I suppose the way by which 
we went, is at that time impassable. 

GLENSHEALS. 

The lough at last ended in a river broad and 
shallow like the rest, but that it may be passed 
when it is deeper, there is a bridge over it. Be- 
yond it .is a valley called Glerisheals, inhabited 
by the clan of Macrae. Here we found a village 
called Auknasheals, consisting of many huts, 
perhaps twenty, built all of dry stone, that is, 
stones piled up without mortar. 

We had, by the direction of the officers at 

Fort Augustus, taken bread for ourselves, and 

tobacco for those Highlanders who might show 

us any kindness. We were now at a place where 

we could obtain milk, but must have wanted 

bread, if we had not brought it. The people of 
F2 



e6 A JOURNEY ta THE 

this valley did not appear to know any English, 
and our guides now became doubly necessary 
as interpreters. A woman, whose hut was dis- 
tinguished by greater spaciousness and better 
architecture, brought out some pails of milk. 
The villagers gathered about us in considerable 
numbers, I believe without any evil intention, 
but with a very savage wildness of aspect and 
manner. When our meal was over, Mr. Bos^ 
well sliced the bread, and divided it amongst 
them, as he supposed them never to have tasted 
a wheaten loaf before. He then gave them little 
pieces of twisted tobacco, and among the chil- 
dren we distributed a small handful of half- 
pence, which they received with great eager- 
ness. Yet I have been since told, that the peo- 
ple of that valley are not indigent; and when 
we mentioned them afterwards as needy and 
pitiable, a Highland lady let us know, that we 
might spare our commiseration; for the dame 
whose milk we drank had probably more than 
a dozen milch cows. She seemed unwilling to 
take any price, but being pressed to make a 
demand, at last named a shilling. Honesty is 
not greater where elegance is less. One of the 
bystanders, as we were told afterwards, advised 



WESTERN ISLANBS. 57 

kcr to ask more, bat she said a shilling was 
enough. We gave her half a crown, and I hope 
got some credit by our behaviour; for the com* 
pany said, if our interpreters did not flatter us* 
that they had not seen such a day since the old 
laird of Macleod passed through their country. 
The Macraes, as we heard afterwards in the 
Hebrides, were originally an indigent and sub- 
ordinate clan, and having no farms nor stock, 
were in great numbers servants to the Maclel- 
lans, who, in the war of Charles the first, took 
^rms at tlie call of the heroick Montrose, and 
were, in one of his battles, almost all destroyed. 
The women that were left at home, being thus 
deprived of their husbands, like the Scythian 
ladies of old, married their servants, and the 
Macraes became a considerable race. 

-THE HIGHLANDS. 

As we continued our journey, we were at 
leisure to extend our speculations, and to in- 
vestigate the reason of those peculiarities by 
which such rugged regions as these before us 
are generally distinguished. 

Mountainous countries commonly contain 
the originalj at least the oldest race of inhabit- 



68 A JOURNEY TO THE 

ants, for they are not easily conquered, because 
they must be entered by narrow ways, exposed 
to every power of mischief from those that oc- 
cupy the heights; and every new ridge is a new 
fortress, where the defendants have again the 
same advantages. If the assailants either force 
the strait, or storm the summit, they gain only 
so much ground; their enemies are fled to take 
possession of the next rock, and the pursuers 
stand at gaze, knowing neither where the ways 
of escape wind among the steeps, nor where the 
bog has firmness to sustain them: besides that, 
mountaineers have an agility in climbing and 
descending distinct from strength or courage, 
and attainable only by use. 

If the war be not soon concluded, tlie inva- 
ders are dislodged by hunger; for in those 
anxious and toilsome marches, provisions can- 
not easily be carried, and are never to be found. 
The wealth of mountains is cattle, which, while 
the men stand in the passes, the women drive 
away. Such lands at last cannot repay the ex- 
pense of conquest, and therefore perhaps have 
not been so often invaded by the mere ambition 
of dominion, as by resentment of robberies and 
insults, or the desire of enjoying in security the 
more fruitful provinces. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. ^9 

As mountains are long before they are con- 
quered, they are likewise long before they are 
civilized. Men are softened by intercourse mu- 
tually profitable, and instructed by comparing 
their own notions with those of others. Thus 
Caesar found the maritime parts of Britain made 
less barbarous by their commerce with the 
Gauls. Into a barren and rough tract no stranger 
is brought either by the hope of gain or of plea- 
sure. The inhabitants having neither commo- 
dities for sale, nor money for purchase, seldom 
visit more polished places, or if they do visit 
them seldom return. 

It sometimes happens that by conquest, in- 
termixture, or gradual refinement, the cultivat- 
ed parts of a country change their language. 
The mountaineers then become a distinct na- 
tion, cut off by dissimilitude of speech from 
conversation with their neighbours. Thus in 
Biscay, the original Cantabrian, and in Dale- 
carlia, the old Swedish still subsists. Thus 
Wales and the Highlands speak the tongue of 
the first inhabitants of Britain, while the other 
parts have received first the Saxon, and in some 
degree afterwards the French, and then formed 
a third language between them. 



70 A JOURNEY TO THE 

That the primitive manners are continued 
where the primitive language is spoken, no na- 
tion vi^ill desire me to suppose, for the manners 
©f mountaineers are commonly savage, but they 
are rather produced by their situation than de- 
rived from their ancestors. 

Such seems to be the disposition of man, 
that whatever makes a distinction produces ri- 
valry. England, before other causes of enmity 
were found, was disturbed for some centuries 
by the contests of the northern and southern 
counties; so that at Oxford, the peace of study 
could for a long time be preserved only by 
choosing annually one of the proctors from each 
side of the Trent. A tract, intersected by many 
ridges of mountains, naturally divides its inha- 
bitants into petty nations, which are made by a 
thousand causes enemies to each other. Each 
will exalt its own chiefs, each will boast the va- 
lour of its men, or the beauty of its women, 
and every claim of superiority irritates compe- 
tition; injuries will sometimes be done, and be 
more injuriously defended; retaliation will some- 
times be attemped, and the debt exacted with 
too much interest. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 7I 

In the Highlands it was a law, that if a rob- 
ber was sheltered from justice, any man of the 
same clan might be taken in his place. This 
was a kind of irregular justice, w^hich, though 
necessary in savage times, could hardly fail to 
end in a feud; and a feud once kindled among 
an idle people with no variety of pursuits to di- 
vert their thoughts, burnt on for ages either 
sullenly glowing in secret mischief, or openly 
blazing into publick violence. Of the effects 
of this violent judicature, there are not wanting 
memorials. The cave is now to be seen to which 
one of the Campbells, who had injured the 
Macdonalds, retired with a body of his own 
clan. The Macdonalds required the offender, 
and being refused, made a fire at the mouth of 
the cave, by which he and his adherents were 
suffocated together. 

Mountaineers are warlike, because by their 
feuds and competitions they consider them- 
selves as surrounded with enemies, and are al- 
ways prepared to repel incursions, or to make 
them. Like the Greeks in their unpolished 
state, described by Thucydides, the Highland- 
ers, till lately, went always armed, and carried 
their weapons to visits, and to church. 



72 A JOURNEY TO THE 

Mountaineers are thievish, because they arc 
poor, and having neither manufactures nor com- 
merce, can grow richer only by robbery. They 
regularly plunder th^-ir neighbours, for their 
neighbours are commonly their enemies; and 
having lost that reverence for property, by which 
the order of civil life is preserved, soon consider 
all as enemies, whom they do not reckon as 
friends, and think themselves licensed to invade 
whatever they are not obliged to protect. 

By a strict administration of the laws, since 
the laws have been introduced into the High- 
lands, this disposition to thievery is very much 
repressed. Thirty years ago no herd had ever 
been conducted through the mountains, with- 
out paying tribute in the night to some of the 
clans; but cattle are now driven, and passen- 
gers travel without danger, fear, or molestation. 

Among a warlike people, the quality of high- 
est esteem is personal courage, and with the 
ostentatious display of courage are closely con- 
nected promptitude of offence and quickness of 
resentment. The Highlanders, before they were 
disarmed, were so addicted to quarrels, that 
the boys used to follow any public procession 
or ceremony, however festive, or however 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 73 

solemn, in expectation of the battle, which was 
sure to happen before the company dispersed. 

Mountainous regions are sometimes so re- 
mote from the seat of government,- and so diffi- 
cult of access, that they are very little under the 
influence of the sovereign, or within the reach 
of national justice. Law is nothing without 
power; and the sentence of a distant court 
could not be easily executed, nor perhaps very 
safely promulgated, among men ignorantly 
proud and habitually violent, unconnected with 
the general system, and accustomed to rever- 
ence only their own lords. It has therefore been 
necessary to erect many particular jurisdictions, 
and commit the punishment of crimes, and the 
decision of right, to the proprietors of the 
country who could enforce their own decrees. 
It immediately appears that such judges will be 
often ignorant, and often partial; but in the 
immaturity of political establishments no better 
expedient could be found. As government ad- 
vances towards perfection, provincial judicature 
is perhaps in every empire gradually abolished. 

Those who had thus the dispensation of law, 
were by consequence themselves lawless. Their 
vassals had no shelter from outrages and op- 



74 A JOURNEY TO THE 

pressions, but were condemned to endure, 
without resistance, the caprices of wantonness, 
and the rage of cruelty. 

In the Highlands, some great lords had an 
hereditary jurisdiction over counties, and some 
chieftains over their ow^n lands, till the final 
conquest of the Highlands afforded an opportu- 
nity of crushing all the local courts, and of ex- 
tending the general benefits of equal law to the 
low and the high, in the deepest recesses apd 
obscurest corners. 

While the chiefs|had this resemblance of 
royalty, they had little inclination to appeal, on 
any question, to superiour judicatures. A claim 
of lands between two powerful lairds was deci- 
ded like a contest for dominion between sove- 
reign powers. They drew their forces into the 
field, and right attended on the strongest. This 
was, in ruder times, the common practice, which 
the kings of Scotland could seldom control. 

Even so lately as in the last years of King 
William, a battle was fought at Mull Roy, on 
a plain a few miles to the south of Inverness, 
between the clans of Mackintosh and Macdo- 
nald of Keppoch. Col. Macdonald, the head 
of a small clan, refused to pay the dues de- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 75 

manded from him by Mackintosh, as his supe- 
riour lord. They disdained the interposition of 
judges and laws, and calling each his followers 
to maintain the dignity of the clan, fought a 
formal battle, in which several considerable men 
fell on the side of Mackintosh, without a com- 
plete victory to either. This is said to have been 
the last open w^ar made between the clans by 
their own authority. 

The Highland lords made treaties, and form- 
ed alliances, of which some traces may still be 
found, and some consequences still remain as 
lasting evidences of petty regality. The terms 
of one of these confederacies were, that each 
should support the other in the right, or in the 
wrong, except against the king. 

The inhabitants of mountains form distinct 
races, and are careful to preserve their genealo- 
gies. Men in a small district necessarily mingle 
blood by intermarriages, and combine at last 
into one family, with a common interest in the 
honour and disgrace of every individual. Then 
begins that union of affection^ and cooperation 
of endeavours, that constitute a clan. They who 
consider themselves as ennobled by their family, 
will think highly of their progenitors, and they 



76 A JOURNEY TO THE 

who through successive generations live always 
together in the same place, will preserve local 
stories and hereditary prejudices. Thus every 
Highlander can talk of his ancestors, and recount 
the outrages which they suffered from the 
wicked inhabitants of the next valley. 

Such are the effects of habitation among 
mountains, and such were the qualities of the 
Highlanders, while their rocks secluded them 
from the rest of mankind, and kept them an 
unaltered and discriminated race. They are 
now losing their distinction, and hastening to 
mingle with the general community. 

GLENELG. 

We left Auknasheals and the Macreas in the 
afternoon, and in the evening came to Ratiken, 
a high hill on which a road is cut, but so steep 
and narrow, that it is very difficult. There is 
now a design of making another way round the 
bottom. Upon one of the precipices, my horse, 
weary with the steepness of the rise, staggered 
a little, and I called in haste to the Highlander 
to hold him. This was the only moment of my 
journey in which I thought myself endangered. 

Having surmounted the hill at last, we were 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 77 

told that at Glenelg, on the sea side, we should 
come to a house of lime and slate and glass. 
This image of magnificence raised our expecta- 
tions. At last we came to our inn weary and pee- 
vish, and began to inquire for meat and beds. 
Of the provisions the negative catalogue was 
very copious. Kere was no meat, no milk, no 
bread, no eggs, no wine. We did not express 
much satisfaction. Here however we were to 
stay. Whisky we might have, and I believe at 
last they caught a fowl and killed it. We had 
some bread, and with that we prepared our- 
selves to be contented, when we had a very 
eminent proof of Highland hospitality. Along 
some miles of the way, in the evening, a gentle- 
man's servant had kept us company on foot 
with very little notice on our part. He left us 
near Glenelg, and we thought on him no more 
till he came to us again, in about two hours, 
with a present from his master of rum and su- 
gar. The man had mentioned his company, 
and the gentleman, whose name, I think, is 
Gordon, well knowing the penury of the place, 
had this attention to two men, whose names 
perhaps he had not heard, by whom his kind- 
ness was not likely to be ever repaid, and who 

G 2 



78 A JOURNEY TO THE 

could be recommended to him only by their 
necessities. 

We were now to examine our lodging. Out 
of one of the beds on which we were to repose, 
started up, at our entrance, a man black as a 
Cyclops from the forge. Other circumstances 
of no elegant recital concurred to disgust us. 
We had been frighted by a lady at Edinburgh, 
with discouraging representations of Highland 
lodgings. Sleep, however, was necessary. Our 
Highlanders had at last found some hay, with 
which the inn could not supply them. I di- 
rected them to bring a bundle into the room, 
and slept upon it in my riding coat. Mr. Bos- 
well being more delicate, laid himself sheets 
with hay over and under him, and lay in linen 
like a gentleman. 

SKY. ARMYDEL. 
In the morning, September the twentiedi, 
we found ourselves on the edge of the sea. 
Having procured a boat, we dismissed our 
Highlanders, whom I would recommend to the 
service of any future travellers, and were fer- 
ried over to the Isle of Sky. We landed at 
Armydel, where we were met on the sands by 
Sir Alexander Macdonald, who was at that 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 79 

time there with his lady, preparing to teave the 
island and reside at Edinburgh. 

Armydel is a neat house, built where the 
Macdonalds had once a seat, which was burnt 
in the commotions that followed the Revolu- 
tion. The walled orchard, w^hich belonged to 
the former house, still remains. It is well sha- 
ded by tall ash trees, of a species, as Mr. Janes 
the fossilist informed me, uncommonly valu- 
able. This plantation is very properly mention- 
ed by Dr. Campbell, in his new account of the 
state of Britain, and deserves attention; becausl^ 
it proves that the present nakedness of the He- 
brides is not wholly the fault of nature. 

As we sat at Sir Alexander's table, we were 
entertained, according to the ancient usage of 
the north, with the melody of the bagpipe. 
Every thing in those countries has its history. 
As the bagpiper v\ as playing, an elderly gentle- 
man informed us, that in some remote time, the 
Macdonalds of Glengary having been injured, 
or offended by the inhabitants of Cuiloden, and 
resolving to have justice or vengeance, came to 
Cuiloden on a Sunday, where finding their 
enemies at worship, they shut them up in the 
church, which they set on fire; and this, said 



80 A JOURNEY TO THE 

he, is the tune that tlie piper played while they 
were burning. 

Narrations like this, however uncertain, de- 
serve the notice of a traveller, because they are 
the only records of a nation that has no histori- 
ans, and afford the most genuine representation 
of the life and character of the ancient High- 
landers. 

Under the denomination of Highlander are 
comprehended in Scotland all that now speak 
the Erse language, or retain the primitive man- 
ners, whether they live among the mountains 
or in the islands; and in that sense I use the 
name, when there is not some apparent reason 
for making a distinction. 

In Sky I first observed the use of brogues, a 
kind of artless shoes, stitched with thongs so 
loosely, that though they defend the foot from 
stones, they do not exclude water. Brogues 
were formerly made of raw hides, with the hair 
inwards, and such are perhaps still used in rude 
and remote parts; but they are said not to last 
above two days. Where life is somewhat im- 
proved, they are now made of leather tanned 
with oak bark, as in other places, or with the 
bark of birch, or roots of tormentil, a substance 
recommended in defect of bark, about fortv 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 81 

j^ears ago, to the Irish tanners, by one to whom 
the parliament of that kingdom voted a reward. 
The leather of Sky is not completely penetrated 
by vegetable matter, and therefore cannot be 
very durable. 

My inquiries about brogues, gave me an 
early specimen of Highland information. One 
day I was told, that to make brogues was a do- 
mestic art, which every man practised for him- 
self, and that a pair of brogues was the work 
of an hour. I supposed that the- husband made 
brogues as the wife made an apron, till next 
day it was told me, that a brogue maker was a 
trade, and that a pair would cost half a crow«. 
It will easily occur that these representations 
may both be true, and that, i n some places, 
men may buy them, and in others, make them 
for themselves; but I had both the accounts in 
the same house within two days. 

Many of my subsequent inquiries upon more 
interesting topicks ended in the like uncertainty. 
He that travels in the Highlands may easily sa- 
turate his soul with intelligence, if he will ac- 
quiesce in the first account. The Highlander 
gives to every question an answer so prompt 
and peremptory, that skepticism itself is dared 
into silence, and the mind sinks before the bold 



82 A JOURNEY TO THE 

reporter in unresisting credulity; but if a se- 
cond question . be ventured, it breaks the en- 
chantment; for it is immediately discovered, 
that what was told so confidently was told at 
hazard, and that such fearlessness of assertion 
was either the sport of negligence, or the re- 
fuge of ignorance. 

If individuals are thus at variance with them- 
selves, it can be no wonder that the accounts 
of different men are contradictory. The tra- 
ditions of an ignorant and savage people have 
been for ages negligently heard, and unskilfully 
related. Distant events must have been mingled 
together, and the actions of one man given to 
another. These, however, are deficiencies in 
story, for which no man is now to be censured. 
It were enough, if what there is yet opportu- 
nity of examining were accurately inspected, 
and justly represented; but such is the laxity of 
Highland conversation, that the inquirer is kept 
in continual suspense, and by a kind of intel- 
lectual retrogradation, knows less as he hears 
more. 

In the islands the plaid is rarely worn. The 
law by which the Highlanders have been obliged 
to change the form of their dress, has, in all the 
places that we have visited, been universally 



WESTERN ISLANPS. 83 

obeyed. I have seen only one gentleman com- 
pletely clothed in the ancient habit, and by him 
it was worn only occasionally and wantonly. 
The common people do not think themselves 
under any legal necessity of having coats; for 
they say that the law against plaids was made 
b}'^ Lord Hardwicke, and was in force only for 
his life; but the same poverty that made it 
then difficult for them to change their clothing, 
hinders them now from changing it again. 

The fillibeg, or lower garment, is still very 
common, and the bonnet almost universal; but 
their attire is such as produces, in a sufficient 
degree, the effect intended by the law, of abo- 
lishing the dissimilitude of appearance between 
the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of 
Britain; and if dress be supposed to have much 
influence, facilitates their coalition with their 
fellow subjects. 

What we have long used we naturally like, 
and therefore the Highlanders were unwilling 
to lay aside their plaid, which yet to an unpre- 
judiced spectator must appear an incommo- 
dious and cumbersome dre^ for, hanging 
loose upon the body, it must flutter in a quick 
motion, or require one of the hands to keep it 
close. The Romans always laid aside the gown 



84 A JOURNEY TO THE 

when they had any thing to do. It was a dress 
so unsuitable to war, that the same word which 
sig-nified a gown signified peace. The chief use 
of a plaid seems to be this, that they could 
commodiously wrap themselves in it, when 
they were obliged to sleep without a better 
cover. 

In our passage from Scotland to Sky, we 
were wet for the first time with a shower. This 
was the beginning of the Highland winter, after 
which we were told that a succession of three 
dry days was not to be expected for many 
months.. The winter of the Hebrides consists 
of little more than rain and wind. As they are 
surrounded by an ocean never frozen, the blasts 
that come to them over the water are too much 
softened to have the power of congelation. The 
salt loughs, or inlets of the sea, which shoot 
very far into the island, never have any ice up- 
on them, and the pools of fresh water will never 
bear the walker. The snow that sometimes falls 
is soon dissolved by the air, or the rain. 

This is not the description of a cruel climate, 
yet the dark n^^^ths are here a time of great 
distress, because the summer can do little more 
than feed itself, and winter comes with its cold 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 85 

and its scarcity upon families very slenderly 
provided. 

CORIATACHAN IN SKY. 

The third or fourth day after our arrival at 
Armydel brought us an invitation to the Isle of 
Raasay, which lies east of Sky. It is incredible 
how soon the account of any event is propa- 
gated in these narrow countries by the love of 
talk, which much leisure produces, and the re- 
lief given to the mind in the penury of insular 
conversation by a new topick. The arrival of 
strangers at a place so rarely visited excites 
rumour, and quickens curiosity. I know not 
whether we touched at any corner where fame 
had not already prepared us a reception. 

To gain a commodious passage to Raasay, 

it was necessary to pass over a large part of 

Sky. We were furnished therefore with horses 

and a guide. In the islands there are no roads, 

nor any marks by which a stranger may find 

kis way. The horseman has always at his side 

a native of the place, who, by pursuing game, 

or tending cattle, or being often employed in 

messages or conduct, has learned where the 

ndge ctf the hill has breadth sufficiejat to ^low 

H 



S6 A JOURNEY TO THE 

a horse and his rider a passage, and where the 
moss or bog is hard enough to bear them. The 
bogs are avoided as toilsome at least, if not un- 
safe, and therefore the journey is made gene- 
rally from precipice to precipice, from which 
if the eye ventures to look down, it sees below 
a gloomy cavity, whence the rush of water is 
sometimes heard. 

But there seems to be in all this more alarm 
than danger. The Highlander walks carefully 
before, and the horse, accustomed to the ground, 
follows him with little deviation. Sometimes 
the hill is too steep for the horseman to keep 
his seat, and sometimes the moss is too tremu- 
lous to bear the double weight of horse and 
man. The rider then dismounts, and all shift as 
they can. 

Journeys made in this manner are rather te- 
dious than long. A very few miles require se- 
veral hours. From Armydel we came at night 
to Coriatachan, a house very pleasantly situated 
between two brooks, with one of the highest 
hills of the island behind it. It is the residence 
of Mr. Mackinlion, by whom we were treated 
with very liberal hospitality, among a more nu- 
merous and elegant company than it could have 
been supposed easy to collect. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. §7 

The hill behind the house we did not climb. 
The weather was rough, and the height and 
steepness discouraged us. We were told that 
there is a cairn upon it. A cairn is a heap of 
stones thrown upon the grave of one eminent 
for dignity of birth, or splendour of achieve- 
ments. It is said that by digging an urn is al- 
ways found under these cairns: they must 
therefore have been thus piled by a people 
whose custom was to burn the dead. To pile 
stones is, I believe, a northern custom, and to 
burn the body was the Roman practice; nor diiD 
I know when it was that these two acts of se- 
pulture were united. 

The weather was next day too violent for 
the continuation of our journey; but we had 
no reason to complain of the interruption. We 
saw in every place, what we chiefly desired to 
know, the manners of the people. We had 
company, and, if we had chosen retirement, we 
might have had books. 

I never was in any house of the islands where 
I did not find books in more languages than 
one, if I staid long enough to want them, ex- 
cept one from which the family was removed. 
Literature is not neglected by the higher rank 
of the Hebridians. 



SB A JOURNEY TO THE 

It need not, I suppose, be mentioned, that in 
countries so little frequented as the islands, 
there are no houses where travellers are enter- 
tained for money. He that wanders about these 
wilds, either procures recommendations to 
those whose habitations lie near his way, or, 
when night and weariness come upon him, takes 
the chance of general hospitality. If he finds 
only a cottage, he can expect little more than 
shelter; for the cottagers have little more for 
themselves: but if his good fortune brings him 
to the residence of a gentleman, he will be glad 
of a storm to prolong his stay. There is, how- 
ever, one inn by the sea side at Sconsor, in 
Sky, where the postoffice is kept. 

At the tables where a stranger is received 
neither plenty nor delicacy is wanting. A tract 
of land so thinly inhabited must have much 
wild fowl; and I scarcely remember to have 
seen a dinner without them. The moor game 
is everywhere to be had. That the sea abounds 
with fish needs not be told, for it supplies a 
great part of Europe. The Isle of Sky has 
stags and roebucks, but no hares. They sell 
very numerous droves of oxen yearly to Eng- 
land, and therefore cannot be supposed to want 



WESTERN ISLANDS. $9 

beef at home. Sheep and goats are in great 
numbers, and they have the common domestick 
fowls. 

But as here is nothing to be bought, every 
family must kill its own meat, and roast part 
of it somewhat sooner than Apicius would pre- 
scribe. Every kind of flesh is undoubtedly ex- 
celled by the variety and emulation of English 
markets; but that which is not best may be yet 
very free from bad, and he that shall complain 
of his fare in the Hebrides, has improved his 
delicacy more than his manhood. 

Their fowls are not like those plumped for 
sale by the poulterers of London, but they are 
as good as other places commonly afford, ex- 
cept that the geese, by feeding in the sea, have 
universally a fishy rankness. 

These geese seem to be of a middle race, be- 
tween the wild and domestick kinds. They are 
so tame as to own a home, and so wild a$ 
sometimes to fly quite away. 

Their native bread is made of oats or barley. 

Of oatmeal, they spread very thin cakes, coarse 

and hard, to w^hich unaccustomed palates are 

not easily reconciled. The barley cakes are 

thicker and softer. I began to eat them with- 
H 2 



^ A JOURNEY TO THE 

out unwillingness. The blackness of their co- 
lour raises some dislike, but the taste is not dis- 
agreeable. In most houses there is wheat flour, 
with which we were sure to be treated, if we 
stayed long enough to have it kneaded and 
baked. As neither yest nor leaven are used 
among them, their bread of every kind is un- 
fermented. They make only cakes, and never 
mould a loaf. 

A man of the Hebrides, for of the women's 
diet I can give no account, as soon as he 
appears in the morning, swallows a glass of 
whisky; yet they are not a drunken race, at least 
I never was present at much intemperance; but 
no man is so abstemious as to refuse the morn- 
ing dram, which they call a stalk. 

The word whisky signifies water, and is ap- 
plied by w^ay of eminence to strong water, or 
distilled liquor. The spirit drunk in the North 
is drawn from barley. I never tasted it, except 
once for experiment at the inn in Inverary, 
when I thought it preferable to any English 
malt brandy. It was strong, but not pungent, 
and was free from the empyreumatick taste or 
smell. What was the process I had no oppor- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 91 

tunity of inquiring, nor do I wish to improve 
the art of making poison pleasant. 

Not long after the dram may be expected 
the breakfast, a meal in which the Scots, whe- 
ther of the lowlands or mountains, must be 
confessed to excel us. The tea and coffee are 
accompanied not only with butter, but with 
honey, conserves, and marmalades. If an epi- 
cure could remove by a wish in quest of sensual 
gratifications, wherever he had supped he would 
breakfast in Scotland. 

In the islands, however, they do what I found 
it not very easy to endure. They pollute the 
teatable by plates piled with large slices of 
Cheshire cheese, which mingles its less grateful 
odours with the fragrance of the tea. 

Where many questions are to be asked some 
will be omitted. I forgot to inquire how they 
were supplied with so much exotick luxury. 
Perhaps the French may bring them wine for 
wool; and the Dutch give them tea and coffee 
at the fishing season in exchange for fresh pro- 
vision. Their trade is unconstrained; they pay 
no customs, for there is no officer to demand 
them; whatever therefore is made dear only by 
impost is obtained here at an easy rate. 

A dinner in the Western Islands differs very 



92 A JOURNEY TO THE 

little from a dinner in England, except that in 
the place of tarts there are always set different 
preparations of milk. This part of their diet 
will admit some improvement. Though they 
have milk, and eggs, and sugar, few of them 
know how to compound them in a custard. 
Their gardens afford them no great variety, but 
they have always some vegetables on the table. 
Potatoes at least are never wanting, which, 
though they have not known them long, are 
now one of the principal parts of their food. 
They are not of the mealy, but of the viscous 
kind. 

Their more elaborate cookery, or made 
dishes, an Englishman, at the first taste, is not 
likely to approve, but the culinary composi- 
tions of every country are often such as become 
grateful to other nations only by degrees; though 
I have read a French author, who, in the elation 
of his heart, says, that French cookery pleases 
all foreigners, but foreign cookery never satis- 
fies a Frenchman. 

Their suppers are, like their dinners, various 
and plentiful. The table is always covered 
with elegant linen. Their plates for common 
tjse are often of that kind of manufiicture which 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 93 

is called cream coloured, or queen's ware. They 
use silver on all occasions where it is common 
in England, nor did I ever find the spoon of 
horn, but in one house. 

The knives are not often either very bright, 
or very sharp. They are indeed instruments 
of which the Highlanders have not been long 
acquainted with the general use. They were 
not regularly laid on the table, before the pro- 
hibition of arms, and the change of dress. 
Thirty years ago the Highlander wore his knife 
as a companion to his dirk or dagger, and when 
the company sat down to meat, the men who 
had knives, cut the flesh into small pieces for 
the women, who with their fingers conveyed it 
to their mouths. 

There was perhaps never any change of na- 
tional manners so quick, so great, and so ge- 
neral, as that which has operated in the High- 
lands, by the last conquest, and the subsequent 
laws. We came thither too late to see what we 
expected, a people of peculiar appearance, and 
a system of antiquated life. The clans retain 
little now of their original character, their fero- 
city of temper is softened, their military ardour 
is extinguished, their dignity of independence 



94 A JOURNEY TO THE 

is depressed, their contempt of government 
subdued, and their reverence for their chiefs 
abated. Of what they had before the late con- 
quest of their country, there remain only their 
language and their poverty. Their language is 
attacked on every side. Schools are erected, in 
w^hich English only is taught, and there were 
lately some who thought it reasonable to refuse 
them a version of the holy scriptures, that they 
might have no monument of their mother 
tongue. 

That their poverty has gradually abated, can- 
not be mentioned among the unpleasing conse- 
quences of subjection. They are now acquaint- 
ed with money, and the possibility of gain will 
by degrees make them industrious. Such is the 
effect of the late regulations, that a longer jour- 
ney than to the Highlands must be taken by 
him whose curiosity pants for savage virtues 
and barbarous grandeur. 

RAASAY. 
At the first intermission of the stormy wea- 
ther we were informed, that the boat, which 
was to convey us to Raasay, attended us on the 
coast. We had from this time our intelligence 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 95 

facilitated, and our conversation enlarged, by 
the company of Mr. Macqueen, minister of a 
parish in Sky, whose knowledge and politeness 
gave him a title equally to kindness and respect, 
and who, from this time, never forsook us till 
we were preparing to leave Sky, and the adja- 
cent places. 

The boat was under the direction of Mr. 
Malcolm Macleod, a gentleman of Raasay. The 
water was calm, and the rowers were vigorous; 
so that our passage was quick and pleasant. 
When we came near the island, we saw the 
laird's house, a neat modern fabrick, and found 
Mr. Macleod, the proprietor of the island, with 
many gentlemen, expecting us on the beach. 
We had, as at all other places, some difficulty 
in landing. The crags were irregularly broken, 
and a false step would have been very mis- 
chievous. 

It seemed that the rocks might, with no great 
labour have been hewn almost into a regular 
flight of steps; and as there are no other land- 
ing places, I considered this rugged ascent as 
the consquence of a form of life inured to hard- 
ships, and therefore not studious of nice accom- 
modations. But I know not whether, for many 



$e A JOURNEY TO THE 

ages, it was not considered as a part of military 
policy, to keep the country not easily accessi- 
ble. The rocks are natural fortifications, and an 
enemy climbing with difficulty, was easily de- 
stroyed by those who stood high above him. 

Our reception exceeded our expectations. 
We found nothing but civility, elegance, and 
plenty. After the usual refreshments, and the 
usual conversation, the evening came upon us. 
The carpet was then rolled off the floor; the 
musician was called, and the whole company 
was invited to dance, nor did ever fairies trip 
with greater alacrity. The general air of festi- 
vity, which predominated in this place, so far 
remote from all those regions which the mind 
has been used to contemplate as the mansions 
of pleasure, struck the imagination with a de- 
lightful surprize, analagous to that which is felt 
at an unexpected emersion from darkness into 
light. 

When it was time to sup, the dance ceased, 
and six and thirty persons sat down to two ta- 
bles ill the same room. After supper the ladies 
sung Erse songs, to which I listened as an 
English audience to an Italian opera, delighted 
with the sounds of words which I did not un- 
derstand. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. ^7 

I inquired the subjects of the songs, and was 
told of one, that it was a love song, and of ano- 
ther, that it was a farewell composed by one of 
the islanders that was going, in this epidemical 
fury of emigration, to seek his fortune in Ame- 
rica. What sentiments would rise, on such an 
occasion, in the heart of one who had not been 
taught to lament by precedent, I should gladly 
have known; but the lady, by whom I sat, 
thought herself not equal to the work of trans- 
lating. 

Mr. M'Leod is the proprietor of the islands 
of Raasay, Rona, and Fladda, and possesses an 
extensive district in Sky. The estate has not, 
during four hundred years, gained or lost a 
single acre. He acknowledges M'Leod of Dun- 
vegan as his chief, though his ancestors have 
formerly disputed the preeminence. 

One of the old Highland alliances has con- 
tinued for two hundred years, and is still sub- 
sisting between Macleod of Raasay and Mac- 
donaid of Sky, in consequence of which, the 
survivor always inherits the arms of the de- 
ceased; a natural memorial of military friend- 
ship. At the death of the late Sir James Mac- 

I 



^j- 



98 A JOURNEY TO THE 

donald, his sword was delivered to the present 
laird of Raasay. 

The family of Raasay consists cf the laird, 
the lady, three sons and ten daughters. For the 
sons there is a tutor in the house, and the lady 
is said to be very skilful and diligent in the 
education of her girls. More gentleness of man- 
ners, or a more pleasing appearance of domes- 
tick society, is not found in the most polished 
countries. 

Raasay is the only inhabited island in Mr. 
Macleod's possession. Rona and Flodda afford 
only pasture for cattle, of which one hundred 
and sixty winter in Rona, under the superin- 
tendence of a solitary herdsman. 

The length of Raasay is, by computation, 
fifteen miles, and the breadth two. These coun- 
tries have never been measured, and the com- 
putation by miles is negligent and arbitrary. 
We observed in travelling, that the nominal 
and real distance of places had very little rela- 
tion to each other. Raasay probably contains 
near a hundred square miles. It affords not 
much ground, notwithstanding its extent, either 
for tillage or pasture, for it is rough, rocky, and 
barren. The cattle often perish by falling from 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 99 

the precipices. It is like the other islands, I 
think, generally naked of shade, but it is naked 
by neglect, for the laird has an orchard,, and 
very large forest trees grow about his house. 
Like other hilly countries it has many rivulets. 
One of the brooks turns a corn mill, and at 
least one produces trouts. 

In the streams or fresh lakes of the islands, I 
have never heard of any other fish than trouts 
and eels. The trouts, which I have seei\ are 
not large; the colour of their flesh is tinged as 
in England. Of their eels I can give no ac- 
count, having never tasted them, for I believe 
they arc not considered as wholesome food. 

It is not very easy to fix the principles upon 
which mankind have agreed to eat some ani- 
mals, and reject others; and as the principle is 
not evident, it is not uniform. That which is 
selected as delicate in one country, is by its 
neighbours abhorred as loathsome. The Nea- 
politans lately refused to eat potatoes in a fa- 
mine. An Englishman is not easily persuaded 
to dine on snails with an Italian, or frogs with 
a Frenchman, or on horse flesh with a Tartar. 
The vulgar inhabitants of Sky, I know not 
whether of the other islands, have not only eels, 



100 A JOURNEY TO THE 

but pork and bacon in abhorrence; and accord- 
ingly I never saw a hog in the Hebrides, ex- 
cept one at Dun vegan. 

Raasay has wild fowl in abundance, but nei- 
ther deer, hares, nor rabbits. Why it has them 
not, might be asked, but that of such questions 
there is no end. Why does any nation want 
what it might have? Why are not spices trans- 
planted to America? Why does tea continue to 
be brought from China? Life improves but by 
sloAV degrees, and much in every place is yet 
to do. Attempts have been made to raise roe- 
bucks in Raasay, but without effect. The young 
ones it is extremely difficult to rear, and the 
old can very seldom be taken alive. 

Hares and rabbits might be more easily ob- 
tained. That they have few or none of either 
in Sky, they impute to the ravage of the foxes, 
and have therefore set, for some years past, a 
price upon their heads, which, as the number 
was diminished, has been gradually raised, from 
three shillings and sixpence to a guinea, a sum 
so great in this part of the world, that, in a short 
time. Sky may be as free from foxes, as En- 
gland from wolves. The fund for these rewards 
is a tax of sixpence in the pound, imposed by 



WESTERN ISLANDS. IQl 

the farmers on themselves, and said to be paid 
with great willingness. 

The beasts of prey in the islands are foxes, 
otters, and weasels. The foxes are bigger than 
those of Endand; but the otters exceed ours 
in a far greater proportion. I saw one at Ar- 
mydel, of a size much beyond that which I 
supposed them ever to attain; and Mr. Maclean, 
the heir of Col, a man of middle stature, in- 
formed me that he once shot an otter, of which 
the tail reached the ground, when he held up 
the head to a level with his own. I expected 
the otter to have a foot particularly formed for 
the art of swimming; but upon examination, I 
did not find it differing much from that of a 
spaniel. As he preys in the sea, he does little 
visible mischief, and is killed only for his fur. 
White otters are sometimes seen. 

In Raasay they might have hares and rabbits, 
for they have no foxes. Some depredations, 
such as were never made before, have caused 
a suspicion that a fox has been lately landed in 
the island by spite or wantonness. This imagi- 
nary stranger has never yet been seen, and 
therefore, perhaps, the mischief was done 

by some other animal. It is not likely that ii 

I 2 



102 A JOURNEY TO THE 

creature so ungentle, whose head could have 
been sold in Sky, for a guinea, should be kept 
alive only to gratify the malice of sending him 
to prey upon a neighbour; and the passage from 
Sky is wider than a fox would venture to swim, 
unless he were chased by dogs into the sea, and 
perhaps then his strength would enable him to 
cross. How beasts of prey came into any 
islands is not easy to guess. In cold countries 
they take advantage of hard winters, and travel 
over the ice; but this is a very scanty solution, for 
they are found where they have no discoverable 
means of coming. 

The corn of this island is but little. I saAV 
the harvest of a small field. The women reaped 
thie corn, and the men bound up the sheaves. 
The strokes of the sickle were timed by the 
modulation of the harvest song, in which all 
their voices were united. They accompany in 
the Highlands every action, which can be done 
in equal time, with an appropriated strain, 
which has they say, not much meaning; but its 
effects are regularity and cheerfulness. The an- 
cient proceleusmatic song, by which the row- 
ers of galleys were animated, may be supposed 
to have been of this kind. Their is now an 
Oar-song used by the Hebridians. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 103 

The ground of Raasay seems fitter for cattle 
than for corn, and of black cattle I suppose the 
number is very great. The laird himself keeps 
a herd of four hundred, one hundred of which 
are annually sold. Of an extensive domain, 
which he holds in his own hands, he considers 
the sale of cattle as repaying him the rent, and 
supports the plenty of a very liberal table with 
the remaining product. 

- Raasay is supposed to have been very long 
inhabited. On one side of it they show caves, 
into which the rude nations of the first ages 
retreated from the weather. These dreary vaults 
might have had other uses. There is still a ca- 
vity near the house called the oar- cave, in which 
the seamen, after one of those piratical expedi- 
tions, which in rougher times was very frequent, 
used, as tradition tells, to hide their oars. This 
hollow was near the sea, that nothing so neces- 
sary might be far to be fetched; and it was se- 
cret, that enemies, if they landed, could find 
nothing. Yet it is not very evident of what 
use it was to hide their oars from those, who, if 
they were masters of the coast, could take away 
their boats. 

A proof much stronger of the distance at 



104 A JOURNEY TO THE 

which the first possessors of this island lived 
from the present time, is afforded by the stone 
heads of arrows which are very frequently 
picked up. The people call them Elf-bolts, and 
believe that the fairies shoot them at the cattle. 
They nearly resemble those which Mr. Banks 
has lately brought from the savage countries in 
the Pacific Ocean, and must have been made 
by a nation to which the use of metals was un- 
known. 

The number of this little community has 
never been counted by its ruler, nor have I ob- 
tained any positive account, consistent with the 
result of political computation. Not many 
years ago, the late laird led out one hundred men 
upon a military expedition. The sixth part of 
a people is supposed capable of bearing arms: 
Raasay had therefore six hundred inhabitants. 
But because it is not likely, that every man able 
to serve in the field would follow the summons, 
or that the chief would leave his lands totally 
defenceless, or take away all the hands qualified 
for labour, let it be supposed, that half as many 
might be permitted to stay at home. The whole 
number will then be nine hundred, or nine to 
a square mile; a degree of populousness greater 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 105 

than those tracts of desolation can often show. 
They are content with their country, and faith- 
ful to their chiefs, and yet uninfected with the 
fever of migration. 

Near the house at Raasay, is a chapel un- 
roofed and ruinous, which has long been used 
only as a place of burial. About the churches, 
in the islands, are small squares enclosed with 
stone, which belong to particular families, as 
repositories for the dead. At Raasay there is 
one, 1 tliink, for the proprietor, and one for 
some collateral house. 

It is told by Martin, that at the death of the 
lady of the Island, it has been here the custom 
to erect a cross. This we found not to be true. 
The stones that stand about the chapel at a 
small distance, some of which perhaps have 
crosses cut upon them, are believed to have 
been not funeral monuments, but the ancient 
boundaries of the sanctuary or consecrated 
ground. 

Martin was a man not illiterate: he was an 
inhabitant of Sky, and therefore was within 
reach of intelligence, and with no great diffi- 
culty might have visited the places which he 
undertakes to describe; yet with all his oppor- 



106 A JOURNEY TO THE 

tunities, he has often suffered himself to be de- 
ceived. He lived in the last century, when the 
chiefs of the clans had lost little of their origi- 
nal influence. The mountains were yet unpe- 
netratedj no inlet was opened to foreign novel- 
ties, and the feudal institutions operated upon 
life with their full force. He might therefore 
have displayed a series of subordination and a 
form of government, which, in more luminous 
and improved regions, have been long forgot- 
ten, and have delighted his readers with many 
uncouth customs that are now disused, and wild 
opinions that prevail no longer. But he pro- 
bably had not knowledge of the world sufiicient 
to qualify him for judging what would deserve 
or gain the attention of mankind. The mode 
of life which was familiar to himself, he did not 
suppose unknown to others, nor imagined that 
he could give pleasure by telling that of which 
it was, in his little country, impossible to be ig- 
norant. 

What he has neglected cannot now be per- 
formed. In nations, where there is hardly the 
use of letters, what is once out of sight is lost 
for ever. They think but little, and of their 
few thoughts, none are wasted on the past, in 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 10^7 

which they are neither interested by fear nor 
hope. Their only registers are stated observ- 
ances and practical representations. For this 
reason an age of ignorance is an age of cere- 
mony. Pageants, and processions, and comme- 
morations, gradually shrink away, as better me- 
thods come into use of recording events, and' 
preserving rights. 

It is not only in Raasay that the chapel is 
unroofed and useless; through the few islands 
which we visited, we neither saw nor heard of 
any house of prayer, except in Sky, that was 
not in ruins. The malignant influence of Cal- 
vinism has blasted ceremony and decency toge- 
ther; and if the remembrance of papal super- 
stition is obliterated, the monuments of papal 
piety are likewise effaced. 

It has been, for many years, popular to talk 
of the lazy devotion of the Romish clergy; 
over the sleepy laziness of men that erected 
churches, we may indulge our superiority with 
a new triumph, by comparing it with the fervid 
activity of those who suffer them to fall. 

Of the destruction of churches, the decay of 
religion must in time be the consequence; for 
while the publick acts of the ministry are novy 



108 A JOURNEY TO THE 

performed in houses, a very small number can 
be present; and as the greater part of the 
islanders make no use of books, all must neces- 
sarily live in total ignorance who want the op- 
portunity of vocal instruction. 

From these remains of ancient sanctity, which 
are everywhere to be found, it has been con- 
jectured, that, for the last two centuries, the in- 
habitants of the islands have decreased in num- 
ber. This argument, which supposes that the 
churches have been suffered to fall, only be- 
cause they were no longer necessary, would 
have some force, if the houses of worship still 
remaining were sufficient for the people. But 
since they have now no churches at all, these 
venerable fragments do not prove the people of 
former times to have been more numerous, but 
to have been more devout. If the inhabitants 
were doubled with their present principles, it 
appears not that any provision for publick wor- 
ship would be made. Where the religion of a 
country enforces consecrated buildings, the 
number of those buildings may be supposed to 
afford some indication, however uncertain, of 
the populousness of the place; but where by a 
change of manners a nation is contented to live 



WESTERN ISLANDS 109 

without them, their decay implies no diminu^ 
tion of inhabitants. 

Some of these dilapidations are said to be 
found in islands now uninhabited; but I doubt 
whether we can thence infer that they were 
ever peopled. The religion of the middle age 
is well known to have placed too much hope 
in lonely austerities. Voluntary solitude was 
the great art of propitiation, by which crimes 
were effaced, and conscience was appeased; it 
is therefore not unlikely, that oratories were 
often built in places where retirement was sure 
to have no disturbance. 

Raasay has little that can detain a traveller, 
except the laird and his family; but their pow- 
er w^ants no auxiliaries. Such a seat of hospi- 
tality, amidst the winds and waters, fills the 
imagination with a delightful contrariety of im- 
ages. Without is the rough ocean and the rocky 
land, the beating billows and the howling storm: 
within is plenty and elegance, beauty and gai- 
ety, the song and the dance. In Raasay, if I 
could have found an Ulysses, I had fancied a 
Phxacia. 

K 



1 10 A JOURNEY TO THE 

DUNVEGAN. 

At Raasay, by good fortune, Macleod, so the 
chief of the clan is called, was paying a visit, 
and by him we were invited to his seat at Dun- 
vegan. Raasay has a stout boat, built in Nor- 
way, in which, with six oars, he conveyed us 
back to Sky. We landed at Port Re, so called, 
because James the Fifth of Scotland, who had 
curiosity to visit the islands, came into it. The 
port is made by an inlet of the sea, deep and 
narrow, where a ship lay waiting to dispeople 
Sky, by carrying the natives away to America. 

In coasting Sky, we passed by the cavern in 
which it was the custom, as Martin relates, to 
catch birds in the night, by making a fire at tjie 
entrance. This practice is disused; for the birds, 
as is known often to happen, have changed 
their haunts. 

Here we dined at a publick house, I believe 
the only inn of the island, and having mounted 
our horses, travelled in the manner already de- 
scribed till we came to Kingsborough, a place 
distinguished by that name, because the King 
lodged here when he landed at Port Re. We 
were entertained with the usual hospitality by 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 1 i 1 

Mr. Macdonald and Jiis lady Flora Macdonald, 
a name that will be mentioned in history, and 
if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned 
with honour. She is a woman of middle stature, 
soft features, gentle manners, and elegant pre- 
sence. 

In the morning we sent our horses round a 
promontory to meet us, and spared ourselves 
part of the day's fatigue, by crossing an arm of 
the sea. We had at last some difficulty in com- 
ing to Dunvegan; for our way led over an 
extensive moor, where every step was to be 
taken with caution, and we were often obliged 
to alight, because the ground could not be 
trusted. In travelling this watery flat, I per- 
ceived that it had a visible declivity, and might 
without much expense or difficulty be drained. 
But difficulty and expense are relative terms, 
which have different meanings in different 
places. 

To Dunvegan we came, very willing to be 
at rest, and found our fatigue amply recom- 
pensed by our reception. Lady Macleod, who 
had lived many years in England, was newly 
come hither with her son and four daughters, 
who knew all the arts of southern elegance, and 



112 A JOURNEY TO THE 

all the modes of English economy. Here there- 
fore we settled, and did not spoil the present 
hour with thoughts of departure. 

Dun vegan is a rocky prominence, that juts 
out into a bay, on the west side of Sky. The 
house, which is the principal seat of Macleod, 
is partly old and partly modern; it is built upon 
the rock, and looks upon the water. It forms 
two sides of a small square: on the third side 
is the skeleton of a castle of unknown antiqui- 
ty, supposed to have been a Norwegian fortress, 
when the Danes were masters of the islands. It 
is so nearly entire, that it miglit have easily 
been made habitable, were there not an omin- 
ous tradition in the family, that the owner shall 
not long outlive the reparation. The grandfa- 
ther of the present laird, in defiance of predic- 
tion, began the work, but desisted in a little 
time, and applied his money to w^orse uses. 

As the inhabitants of the Hebrides lived, for 
many ages, in continual expectation of hostili- 
ties, the chief of every clan resided in a fortress. 
This house was accessible only from the water, 
till the last possessor opened an entrance by 
stairs upon the land. 

Thev had fnrmerlv reason to be afraid, not 



WESTERN ISLANDS. lis 

only of declared wars and authorised invaders, 
or of roving pirates, which in the northern seas, 
must have been very common; but of inroads 
and insults from rival clans, who in the pleni- 
tude of feudal independence, asked no leave of 
their sovereign to make war on one another. 
Sky has been ravaged by a feud between the 
two mighty powers of Macdonald and Mac- 
leod. Macdonald having married a Macleod, 
upon some discontent dismissed her, perhaps 
because she had brought him no children. Be- 
fore the reign of James the Fifth, a Highland 
laird made a trial of his wife for a certain time, 
and if she did not please him, he was then at 
liberty to send her away. This however must 
always have offended, and Macleod resenting 
the injury, whatever were its circumstances, 
declared that the wedding had been solemnized 
without a bonfire, but that the separation should 
be better illuminated; and raising a little army, 
set fire to the territories of Macdonald, who 
returned the visit and prevailed. 

Another story may show the disorderly state 
of insular neighbourhood. The inhabitants of 
the Isle of Egg, meeting a boat manned by 
Macleods, tied the crew hand and foot, and set 

K 2 



114 A JOURNEY TO THE 

them adrift. Macleod landed upon Egg, and 
demanded the offenders; but the inhabitants 
refusing to surrender them, retreated to a ca- 
vern, into which they thought their enemies 
unlikely to follow them. Macleod choaked 
them with smoke, and left them lying dead by 
families as they stood. 

Here the violence of the weather confined us 
for some time, not at all to our discontent or 
inconvenience. We would indeed very wil- 
lingly have visited the islands, which might be 
seen from the house scattered in the sea, and I 
was particularly desirous to have viewed Isay; 
but the storms did not permit us to launch a 
boat, and we were condemned to listen in idle- 
iiess to the wind, except when we were better 
engaged by listening to the ladies. 

We had here more winds than waves, and 
suffered the severity of a tempest, without en- 
joying its magnificence. The sea being broken 
by the multitude of islands, does not roar with 
so much noise, nor beat the storm with such 
foamy violence, as I have remarked on the 
coast of Sussex. Though, while I was in the 
Hebrides, the wind was extremely turbulent, 
I never saw very high billows. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. US 

The country about Dunvegan is rough and 
barren. Tiiere are no trees, except in the or- 
chard, which is a low sheltered spot surround- 
ed with a wall. 

When this house was intended to sustain a 
siege, a well was made in the court, by boring 
the rock downwards, till water was found, 
which, though so near to the sea, I have not 
heard mentioned as brackish, though it has 
some hardness, or other qualities, which makes 
it less fit for use; and the family is now better 
supplied from a stream, which runs by the rock 
from two pleasing waterfals. 

Here we saw some traces of former manners, 
and heard some standing traditions. In the 
house is kept an ox's horn, hollowed so as to 
hold perhaps two quarts, which the heir of Mac- 
leod was expected to swallow at one draught, as 
a test of his manhood, before he was permitted 
to bear arms, or could claim a seat among the 
men. It is held, that the return of the laird to 
Dunvegan, after any considerable absence, pro- 
duces a plentiful capture of herring; and that, 
if any woman crosses the water to the opposite 
island, the herrings will desert the coast. Boe- 
tius tells the same of some other place. This 



115 A JOURNEY TO THE 

tradition is not uniform. Some hold that no 
woman may pass, and others that none may- 
pass but a Macleod. 

Among other guests, which the hospitality 
of Dun vegan brought to the table, a visit was 
paid by the laird and lady of a small island 
south of Sky, of which the proper name is 
Muack, which signifies swine. It is commonly 
called Muck, which the proprietor not liking, 
has endeavoured, without effect, to change to 
Monk. It is usual to call gentlemen in Scot- 
land by the name of their possessions, asRaasay, 
Bernera, Loch Buy, a practice necessary in 
countries inhabited by clans, where all that live 
in the same territory have one name, and must 
be therefore discriminated by some addition. 
This gentleman, whose name, I think, is Mac- 
lean, should be regularly called Muck; but the 
appellation, which he thinks too coarse for his 
island, he would like still less for himself, and 
he is therefore addressed by the title of Isle of 
Muck. 

This little island, however it be named, is of 
considerable value. It is two English miles 
long, and three quarters of a mile broad, and 
consequently contains only nine hundred and 



WESTERN ISLANDS. II7 

sixty English acres. It is chiefly arable. Half 
of this little dominion the laird retains in his 
own hand, and on the other half, live one hun- 
dred and sixty persons, who pay their rent by 
exported corn. What rent they pay, we were 
not told, and could not decently inquire. The 
proportion of the people to the land is such, as 
the most fertile countries do not commonly 
maintain. 

The laird having all his people under his im- 
mediate view, seems to be very attentive to their 
happiness. The devastation of the smallpox, 
when it visits places where it comes seldom, is 
well known. He has disarmed it of its terror 
at Muack, by inoculating eighty of his people. 
The expense was two shillings and sixpence a 
head. Many trades they cannot have among 
them, but upon occasion he fetches a smidi 
from the Isle of Egg, and has a tailor from the 
main land six times a year. This island well 
deserved to be seen, but the laird's absence left 
us no opportunity. 

Every inhabited island has its appendant and 
subordinate islets. Muck, however small, has 
vet others smaller about it, one of which has 



118 A JOURNEY TO THE 

only ground sufficient to afford pasture for three 
wethers. 

At Dunvegan I had tasted lotus, and was in 
danger of forgetting that I was ever to depart, 
till Mr. Boswell sagely reproached me with my 
sluggishness and softness. I had no very forci- 
ble defence to make, and we agreed to pursue 
our journey. Macleod accompanied us to Uli- 
nish, where we were entertained by the sheriff 
of the island. 

ULINISH. 
Mr. Macqueen travelled with us, and di- 
rected our attention to all that was worthy of 
observation. With him we went to see an an- 
cient building, called a dun or borough. It 
was a circular enclosure, about forty -two feet in 
diameter, walled round with loose stones, per- 
haps to the height of nine feet. The walls are 
very thick, diminishing a little towards the top; 
and though in these countries stone is not 
brought far, must have been raised with much 
labour. Within the great circle were several 
smaller rounds of wall, which formed distinct 
apartments. Its date and its use are unknown. 
Some suppose it the original seat of the chiefs' 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 119 

of the Macleods. Mr. Macqueen thought it a 
Danish fort. 

The entrance is covered with flat stones, and 
is narrow, because it was necessary that the 
stones which lie over it should reach from one 
wall to the other; yet, strait as the passage is, 
they seem heavier than could have been placed 
where they now lie, by the naked strength of 
as many men as might stand about them. They 
were probably raised by putting long pieces of 
wood under them, to which the action of a long 
line of lifters might be applied. Savages, in all 
countries, have patience proportionate to their 
unskilfulness, and are content to attain their 
end by very tedious methods. 

If it was ever roofed, it might once have been 
a dwelling, but as there is no provision for wa- 
ter, it could not have been a fortress. In Sky, 
as in every other place, there is an ambition of 
exalting whatever has survived memory, t© 
some important use, and referring it to very 
remote ages. I am inclined to suspect, that in 
lawless times, when the inhabitants of every 
mountain, stole the cattle of their neighbour, 
these enclosures were used to secure the herds 
-and flocks in the night. When they were driven 



120 A JOURNEY TO THE 

within the wall, they might be easily watched, 
and defended as long as could be needful; for 
the robbers durst not wait till the injured clan 
should find them in the morning. 

The interiour enclosures, if the whole build- 
ing were once a house, were the chambers of 
the chief inhabitants. If it was a place of secu- 
rity for cattle, they were probably the shelters 
of the keepers. 

From the Dun we were conducted to ano- 
ther place of security, a cave carried a great 
way under ground, which had been discovered 
by digging after a fox. These caves, of which 
many have been found, and many probably re- 
main concealed, are formed, I believe, com- 
monly by taking advantage of a hollow, where 
banks or rocks rise on either side. If no such 
place can be found, the ground must be cut 
away. The walls are made by piling stones 
against the earth on either side. It is then roof- 
ed by large stones laid across the cavern, which 
therefore cannot be wide. Over the roofs, turfs 
were placed, and grass was suffered to grow; 
and the mouth was concealed by bushes, or 
some other cover. 

These caves were represented to us as th^ 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 121 

cabins of the first rude inhabitants, of which, 
however, I am by no means persuaded. This 
was so low, that no man could stand upright in 
it. By their construction they are all so narrow 
that two can never pass along them together, 
and being subterraneous, they must be always 
damp. They are not the work of an age much 
ruder than the present, for they are formed with 
as much art as the construction of a common 
hut requires. I imagine them to have been 
places only of occasional use, in which the 
islander, upon a sudden alarm, hid his utensils 
or his clothes, and perhaps sometimes his wife 
.and children. 

This cave we entered, but could not proceed 
the whole length, and went away without 
knowing how far it was carried. For this omis- 
sion we shall be blamed, as we perhaps have 
blamed other travellers; but the day was rainy, 
and the ground was damp. We had with us 
neither spades nor pickaxes, and if love of ease 
surmounted our desire of knowledge, the of- 
fence has not the invidiousness of singularity. 

Edifices, either standing or ruined, are the 

chief records of an illiterate nation. In some 

part of this journey, at no great distance from 

L 



122 A JOURNEY TO THE 

our way, stood a shattered fortress, of which 
the learned minister, to whose communication 
we are much indebted, gave us an account. 

Those, said he, are the walls of a place of re- 
fuge, built in the time of James the Sixth, by 
Hugh Macdonald, who was next heir to the 
dignity and fortune of his chief. Hugh, being 
so near his wish, was impatient of delay, and 
had art and influence sufiicient to engage seve- 
ral gentlemen in a plot against the laird's life. 
Something must be stipulated on both sides, 
for they would not dip their hands in blood 
merely for Hugh's advancement. The compact 
was formally written, signed by the conspira- 
tors, and placed in the hands of one Macleod. 

It happened that Macleod had sold some cat- 
tle to a drover, who not having ready money, 
gave him a bond for payment. The debt was 
discharged, and the bond redemanded; which 
Macleod, who could not read, intending to put 
into his hands, gave him the conspiracy. The 
drover, when he had read the paper, delivered 
it privately to Macdonald, who being thus in- 
formed of his danger, called his friends toge- 
ther, and provided for his safety. He made a 
publick feast, and inviting Hugh Macdonald and 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 123 

his confederates, placed each of them at the ta- 
ble between two men of known fidelity. The 
compact of conspiracy was then shown, and 
every man confronted with his own name. 
Macdonald acted with great moderation. He 
upbraided Hugh both with disloyalty and in- 
gratitude; but told the rest, that he considered 
them as men deluded and misinformed. Hugh 
was sworn to fidelity, and dismissed with his 
companions; but he was not generous enough 
to be reclaimed by lenity; and finding no longer 
any countenance among the gentlemen, endea- 
voured to execute the same design by meaner 
hands. In this practice he was detected, taken 
to Macdonald's castle, and imprisoned in the 
dungeon. When he was hungry, they let down 
a plentiful meal of salted meat; and when, after 
his repast, he called for drink, conveyed to him 
a covered cup, which, when he lifted the lid> 
he found empty. From that time they visited 
him no more, but left him to perish in solitude 
and darkness. 

We were then told of a cavern by the sea 
side remarkable for the powerful reverberation 
of sounds. After dinner we took a boat to ex- 
plore this curious cavity. The boatmen, whd 



124 A JOURNEY TO THE 

seemed to be of a rank above that of comnioa 
drudges, inquired who the strangers were, and 
being told we came one from Scotland, and the 
other from England, asked if the Englishman 
could recount a long genealogy. What ans^ver 
was given them, the conversation being in Erse, 
I was not much inclined to examine. 

They expected no good event of the voyage, 
for one of them declared that he heard the cry 
of an English ghost. This omen I was not told 
till after our return, and therefore cannot claim 
the dignity of despising it. 

The sea was smooth. We never left the 
shore, and came without any disaster to the 
cavern, which we found rugged and misshapen, 
about one hundred and eighty feet long, thirty 
wide in the broadest part, and in the loftiest, as 
we guessed, about thirty high. It was now dry, 
but at high water the sea rises in it near six 
feet. Here I saw what I had never seen before, 
limpets and muscles in their natural state. But, 
as a new testimony to the veracity of common 
fame, here was no echo to be heard. 

We" then walked through a natural arch in 
the rock, which might have pleased us by its 
novelty, had the stones, which encumbered our 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 125 

feet, given us leisure to consider it. We were 
shown the gummy seed of the kelp, that fastens 
itself to a stone, from which it grows into a 
strong stalk. 

In our return, we found a little boy upon 
the point of a rock, catching with his angle, a 
supper for the family. We rowed up to him, 
and borrowed his rod, with which Mr. Boswell 
caught a cuddy. 

The cuddy is a fish of which I know not the 
philosophical name. It is not much bigger than 
a gudgeon, but is of great use in these Islands, 
as it affords the lower people both food, and oil 
for their lamps. Cuddies are so abundant, at 
some times of the year, that they are caught 
like white bait in the Thames, only by dipping 
a basket and drawing it back. 

If it were always practicable to fish, these 
Islands could never be in much danger from 
famine; but unhappily in the winter, when other 
provision fails, the seas are commonly too rough 
for nets, or boats. 

TALISKER IN SKY. 
From Ulinish, our next stage was to Talisker, 
the house of colonel Macleod, an officer in the 

L2 



126 A JOURNEY TO THE 

Dutch service, who in this time of universal 
peace, has for several years been permitted to 
be absent from his regiment. Having been bred 
to physick, he is consequently a scholar, and 
his lady, by accompanying him in his different 
places of residence, is become skilful in several 
languages. Talisker is the place, beyond all 
that I have seen, from which the gay and the 
jovial seem utterly excluded; and where the 
hermit might expect to grow old in meditation, 
without possibility of disturbance or interrup- 
tion. It is situated very near the sea, but upon 
a coast where no vessel lands but when it is 
driven by a tempest on the rocks. Towards 
the land are lofty hills streaming with water- 
falls. The garden is sheltered by firs, or pines, 
which grow there so prosperously, that some, 
which the present inhabitant planted, are very 
high and thick. 

At this place we very happily met Mr. Do- 
nald iVlaclean, a young gentleman, the eldest 
son of the laird of Col, heir to a very great 
extent of land, and so desirous of improving his 
inheritance, that he spent a considerable time 
among the farmers of Hertfordshire, and Hamp- 
shire, to learn their practice. He worked with 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 127 

-iiis own hands at the principal operations of 
agriculture, that he might not deceive himself 
by a false opinion of skill, which if he should 
find it deficient at home, he had no means of 
completing. If the world has agreed to praise 
the travels and manual labours of the Czar of 
Muscovy, let Col have his share of the like ap- 
plause, in the proportion of his dominions to 
the empire of Russia. 

This young gentleman was sporting in the 
mountains of Sky, and when he was weary 
with following his game, repaired for lodging 
to Talisker. At night he missed one of his 
dogs, and when he went to seek him in the 
morning, found two eagles feeding on his car- 
cass. 

Col, for he must be named by his posses- 
sions, hearing that our intention was to visit 
Jona, offered to conduct us to his chief, Sir Allan 
Maclean, who lived in the Isle of Inch Kenneth, 
and would readily find us a convenient passage. 
From this time was formed an acquaintance, 
which being begun by kindness, was acciden- 
tally continued by constraint; we derived much 
pleasure from it, and I hope have given him no 
reason to repent it. 



128 A JOURNEY TO THE 

The weather was now almost one continued 
storm, and we were to snatch some happy in- 
termission to be conveyed to Mull, the third 
island of the Hebrides, lying about a degree 
south of Sky, whence we might easily find our 
way to Inch Kenneth, where Sir Allan Maclean 
resided, and afterward to Jona. 

For this purpose, the most commodious sta- 
tion that we could take was Armydel, which sir 
Alexander Macdonald had now left to a gentle- 
man, who lived there as his factor or steward. 

In our way to Armydel, was Coriatachan, 
where we had already been, and to which there- 
fore we were very willing to return. We staid 
however so long at Talisker, that a great part of 
our journey was performed in the gloom of the 
evening. In travelling even thus almost with- 
out light through naked solitude, when there is 
a guide whose conduct may be trusted, a mind 
not naturally too much disposed to fear, may 
preserve some degree of cheerfulness; but what 
must be the solicitude of him who should be 
wandering, among the crags and hollows, be- 
nighted, ignorant, and alone? 

The fictions of the Gothick romances were 
not so remote from credibility as they are now 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 1^9 

thought. In the full prevalence of the feudal 
institution, when violence desolated the world, 
and every baron lived in a fortress, forests and 
castles were regularly succeeded by each other, 
and the r^d venturer might very suddenly pass 
from the gloom of woods, or the ruggedness 
of moors, to seats of plenty, gaiety and magni- 
ficence. Whatever is imaged in the wildest 
tale, if giants, dragons, and enchantment be 
excepted, would be felt by him, who, wander- 
ing in the mountains without a guide, or upon 
the sea without a pilot, should be carried amidst 
his terror and uncertainty, to the hospitality and 
elegance of Raasay and Dun vegan. 

To Coriatachan at last we came, and found 
ourselves welcomed as before. Here we staid 
two days, and made such inquiries as curiosity 
suggested. The house was filled with compa- 
ny, among whom Mr. Macpherson and his 
sister distinguished themselves by their po- 
liteness and accomplishments. By him we 
were invited to Ostig, a house not far from 
Armydel, where we might easily hear of a boat, 
when the weather would suffer us to leave the 
island. 



1^ A JOURNEY TO THE 

OSTIG IN SKY. 

At Ostig, of which Mr. Macpherson is miii- 
ister, we were entertained for some days, then 
removed to Armydel, where we finished our 
observations on the Island of Sky. 

As this island lies in the fifty- seventh degree, 
the air cannot be supposed to have much 
warmth. The long continuance of the sun 
above the horizon, does indeed sometimes 
produce great heat in northern latitudes; but 
this can only happen in sheltered places, where 
the atmosphere is to a certain degree stagnant, 
and the same mass of air continues to receive 
for many hours the rays of the sun, and the 
vapours of the earth. Sky lies open on the west 
and north to a vast extent of ocean, and is 
cooled in the summer by a perpetual ventila- 
tion, but by the same blasts is kept warm in 
winter. Their weather is not pleasing. Hiilfthe 
year is deluged with rain. From the autumnal 
to the vernal equinox, a dry day is hardly known, 
except when the showers are suspended by a 
tempest. Under such skies can be expected no 
great exuberance of vegetation. Their winter 
•vertakes their summer, and their harvest lies 



WESTERN ISLANDS. i3l 

upon the ground drenched with rain. The au- 
tumn struggles hard to produce some of our 
early fruits. I gathered gooseberries in Sep- 
tember; but they were small, and the husk was 
thick. 

Their winter is seldom such as puts a full 
stop to the growth of plants, or reduces the 
catde to live wholly on the surplusage of the 
summer. In the year seventy-one they had a 
severe season, remembered by the name of the 
Black Spring, from which the island has not yet 
recovered. The snow lay long upon the ground, 
a calamity hardly known before. Part of their 
cattle died for want, part were unseasonably 
sold to buy sustenance for the owners; and, 
what I have not read or heard of before, the 
kine that survived were so emaciated and 
dispirited, that they did not require the male 
at the usual time. Manv of the roebucks 
perished. 

The soil, as in other countries, has its diver- 
sities. In some parts there is only a thin layer 
of earth spread upon a rock, which bears no- 
thing but short brown heath, and perhaps is not 
generally capable of any better product. There 
are miiny bogs or mosses of greater or less ex- 



■i$M 



132 A JOURNEY TO THE 

tent, where the soil cannot be supposed to want 
depth, though it is too wet for the plough. 
But we did not observe in these any aquatic 
plants. The valleys and the mountains are aUke 
darkened with heath. Some grass, however, 
grows here and there, and some happier spots 
of earth are capable of tillage. 

Their agriculture is laborious, and perhaps 
rather feeble than unskilful. Their chief manure 
is sea weed, which, when they lay it to rot upon 
the field, gives them a better crop than those 
of the Highlands. They heap sea- shells upon 
the dunghill, which in time moulder into a fer- 
tilizing substance. When they find a vein of 
earth where they cannot use it, they dig it up, 
and add it to the mould of a more commodious 
place. 

Their corn grounds often lie in such intrica- 
cies among the crags, that there is no room 
for the action of a team and plough. The soil 
is then turned up by manual labour with an 
instrument called a crooked spade, of a form 
and weight which to me appeared very incom- 
modious, and would perhaps be soon improved 
in a country where workmen could be easily 
found and easily paid. It has a narrow blade of 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 133 

iron fixed to a long and heavy piece of wood, 
which must have, about a foot and a half above 
the iron, a knee or flexure with the angle down- 
wards. When the farmer encounters a stone, 
which is the great impediment of his opera- 
tions, he drives the blade under it, and bring- 
ing the knee or angle to the ground, has in the 
long handle a very forcible lever, 

- According to the diff'erent mode of tillage, 
farms are distinguished into long land and 
-short land. Long land is that which affbrds 
room for a plough, and short land is turned up 
by the spade. 

The grain which they commit to the furrows 
thus tediously formed, is eidier oats or barley. 
They do not sow barley without very copious 
manure, and then they expect from it ten for 
one, an increase equal to that of better coun- 
tries; but the culture is so operose that they 
content themselves commonly with oats; and 
who can relate without compassion, that after 
all their diligence they are to expect only a tri- 
ple increase? It is in vain to hope for plenty, 
when a third part of the harvest must be re- 
served for seed. 

When their grain is arrived at the state which 
M 



134 A JOURNEY TO THE 

they must consider as ripeness, they do not cut, 
but pull the barley: to the oats they apply the 
sickle. Wheel carriages they have none, but 
make a frame of timber, which is drawn by one 
horse with the two points behind pressing on 
the ground. On this they sometimes drag home 
their sheaves, but often convey them home in 
a kind of open panier, or frame of sticks upon 
the horse's back. 

Of that which is obtained with so much dif- 
ficulty, nothing surely ought to be wasted; 
yet their method of clearing their oats from the 
husk is by parching them in the straw. Thus 
with the genuine improvidence of savages, they 
destroy that fodder for want of which their cat- 
tle may perish. From this practice they have 
two petty conveniencies. They dry the grain 
so that it is easily reduced to meal, and they 
escape the theft of the thresher. The taste con- 
tracted from the fire by the oats, as by every 
other scorched substance, use must long ago 
have made grateful. The oats that are not 
parched must be dried in a kiln. 

The barns of Sky I never saw. That which 
Macleod of Raasay had erected near his house 
was so contrived, because the harvest is seldom 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 135 

brought home dry, as by perpetual perflation 
to prevent the mow from heating. 

Of their gardens I can judge only from their 
tables. I did not observe that the common 
greens were wanting, and suppose that by 
choosing an advantageous exposition, they can 
raise all the more hardy esculent plants. Of ve- 
getable fragrance or beauty they are not yet 
studious. Few vows are made to Flora in the 
Hebrides. 

They gather a little hay, but the grass is 
mown late; and is so often almost dry and again 
very wet, before it is housed, that it becomes a 
collection of withered stalks without taste or 
fragrance; it must be eaten by cattle that have 
nothing else, but by most English farmers 
would be thrown away. 

In the islands I have not heard that any sub- 
terraneous treasures have been discovered, 
though where there are mountains, there are 
commonly minerals. One of the rocks in Col 
has a black vein, imagined to consist of the ore 
of lead; but it was never yet opened or assayed. 
In Sky a black mass was accidentally picked 
up, and brought into the house of the owner 
of the land, who found himself strongly inclined 



136 A JOURNEY TO TH£ 

to think it a coal, but unhappily it did not burn 
in the chimney. Common ores would be here 
of no great value; for what requires to be se- 
parated by fire, must, if it were found, be car- 
ried away in its mineral state, here being no 
fuel for the smelting house or forge. Perhaps 
by diligent search in this world of stone, some 
valuable species of marble might be discovered. 
But neither philosophical curiosity, nor com- 
mercial industry, have yet fixed their abode 
here, where the importunity of immediate want 
supplied but for the day, and craving on the 
morrow, has left little room for excursive know- 
ledge, or the pleasing fancies of distant profit. 
They have lately found a manufacture consi- 
derably lucrative. Their rocks abound with 
kelp, a sea plant, of which the ashes are melted 
into glass. They burn kelp in great quantities, 
and then send it away in ships, which come re- 
gularly to purchase it. This new source of 
riches has raised the rents of many maritime 
farms; but the tenants pay, like all other te- 
nants, the additional rent with great unwilling- 
ness, because they consider the profits of the 
kelp as the mere product of personal labour, to 
which the landlord contributes nothing. How- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 137 

ever, as any man may be said to give what he 
gives the power of gaining, he has certainly as 
much right to profit from the price of kelp as 
of any thing else found or raised upon his 
ground. 

This new trade has excited a long and eager 
litigation between Macdonald and Macleod for 
a ledge of rocks, which, till the value of kelp 
was know^n, neither of them desired the reputa- 
tion of possessing. 

The cattle of Sky are not so small as is com- 
monly believed. Since they have sent their 
beeves in great numbers to southern marts, 
they have probably taken more care of their 
breed. At stated times the annual growth of 
cattle is driven to a fair by a general drover, 
and with the money, which he returns to the 
farmer, the rents are paid. 

The price regularly expected is from two to 
three pounds a head: there wa§ once one sold 
for five pounds, rfliey go from the islands very 
lean, and are not offered to the butcher till they 
have been long fatted in English pastures. 

Of their black cattle, some are without horns, 
called by the Scots '* humble" cows, as we call 
a bee an ** humble" bee that wants a sting. 

M2 



138 A JOURNEY TO THE 

Whether this clifFerence be specific or acciden- 
tal, though we inquired with great diligence, 
we could not be informed. We are not very 
sure that the bull is ever without horns, though 
we have been told that such bulls there are. 
What is produced by putting a horned and un- 
horned male and female together, no man has 
ever tried, that thought the result worthy of 
observation. 

Their horses are, like their cows, of a mode- 
rate size. I had no difSculty to mount myself 
commodiously by the favour of the gentlemen. 
I heard of very little cows in Barra, and very 
little horses in Rum, where perhaps no care is 
taken to prevent that diminution of size which 
must always happen where the greater and the 
less copulate promiscuously, and the young 
animal is restrained from growth by penury of 
sustenance. 

The goat is the general inhabitant of the 
earth, complying with every difference of cli- 
mate and of soil. The goats of the Hebrides 
are like others: nor did I hear any thing of 
their sheep to be particularly remarked. 

In the penury of these malignant regions no- 
thing is left that can be converted to food. The 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 139 

goats and the sheep are milked like the cows. 
A single meal of a goat is a quart, and of a 
sheep a pint. Such at least v/as the account 
which I could extract from those of whom 
I am not sure that they ever had inquired. 

The milk of goats is much thinner than that 
of cows, and that of sheep is much thicker. 
Sheep's milk is never eaten before it is boiled. 
As it is thick, it must be very liberal of curd; 
and the people of St. Kilda form, it into small 
cheeses. 

The stags of the mountains are less than 
those of our parks or forests, perhaps not 
bigger than our fallow deer. Their flesh has no 
rankness, nor is inferiour in flavour to our com- 
mon venison. The roebuck I neither saw^ nor 
tasted. These are not countries for a regular 
chase. The deer are not driven with horns and 
hounds. A sportsman, with his gun in his hand, 
watches the animal, and, when he has wounded 
him, traces him by the blood. 

They have a race of brinded greyhounds 
larger and stronger than those with which we 
course hares, and those are the only dogs used 
by them for the chase. • 

Man is by the use of firearms made so much 



140 A JOURNEY TO THE 

an overmatch for other animals, that in all 
countries where they are in use the wild part 
of the creation sensibly diminishes. There will 
probably not be long either stags or roebucks 
in the islands. All the beasts of chase w^ould 
have been lost long ago in countries well inha- 
bited, had they not been preserved by laws for 
the pleasure of the rich. 

There are in Sky neither rats nor mice, but 
the weasel is so frequent, that he is heard in 
houses rattling behind chests or beds, as rats 
in England. They probably owe to his predo- 
minance that they have no other vermin; for, 
since the great rat took possession of this part 
of the ^vorld, scarce a ship can touch at any 
port but some of his race are left behind. They 
have within these few years began to infest the 
Isle of Col, where being left by some trading 
vessel, they have increased for want of weasels 
to oppose them. 

The inhabitants of Sky, and of the other 
islands which I have seen, are commonlv of the 
middle stature, with fewer among them very 
tall or very short than are seen in England, or 
perhaps, as their numbers are small, the chances 
of any deviation from the common measure are 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 141 

necessarily few. The tallest men that I saw are 
among those of higher rank. In regions of bar- 
renness and scarcity, the human race is hindered 
in its growth by the same causes as other 
animals. 

The ladies have as much beauty here as in 
other places, but bloom and softness are not to 
be expected among the lower classes, whose 
faces are exposed to the rudeness of the climate, 
and whose features are sometimes contracted by 
want, and sometimes hardened by the blasts. 
Supreme beauty is seldom found in cottages or 
workshops, even where no real hardships are 
suffered. To expand the human face to its full 
perfection, it seems necessary that the mind 
should cooperate by placidness of content, or 
consciousness of superiority. 

Their strength is proportionate to their size, 
but they are accustomed to run upon rough 
ground, and therefore can with great agility skip 
over the bog, or clamber the mountain. For a 
campaign in the wastes of America, soldiers 
better qualified could not have been found. 
Having little work to do, they are not willing, 
nor perhaps able to endure a long continuance 
of manual labour, and are therefore considered 
as habitually idle. 



142 A JOURNEY TO THE 

Having never been supplied with these ac- 
commodations, which Ufe extensively diversi- 
fied with trader> affords, they supply their 
wants by very insufficient shifts, and endure 
many inconveniencies, which a little attention 
would easily relieve. I have seen a horse carry- 
ing home the harvest on a crate. Under his tail 
was a stick for a crupper, held at the two ends 
by twists of straw. Hemp will grow in their 
islands, and therefore ropes may be had. If 
they wanted hemp, they might make better 
cordage of rushes, or perhaps of nettles, than 
of straw. 

Their method of life neither secures them 
perpetual health, nor exposes them to any 
particular diseases. There are physicians in 
the Islands, who, I believe, all practise chirur- 
gery, and all compound their own medicines. 

It is generally supposed, that life is longer in 
places where there are few opportunities of lux- 
ury; but I found no instance here of extraordi- 
nary longevity. A cottager grows old over his 
oaten cakes, like a citizen at a turtle feast. He 
is indeed seldom incommoded by corpulence. 
Poverty preserves him from sinking under the 
burden of himself, but he escapes no other in- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 143 

jury of time. Instances of long life are often 
related, which those who hear them are more 
willing to credit than examine. To be told that 
any man has attained a hundred years, gives 
hope and comfort to him who stands trembling 
on the brink of his own climacterick. 

Length of life is distributed impartially to 
very different modes of life in very different 
climates; and the mountains have no greater 
examples of age and health than the lowlands, 
where I was introduced to two ladies of high 
quality; one of whom in her ninety-fourth year, 
presided at her table with the full exercise of 
all her powers; and the other has attained her 
eighty -fourth, without any diminution of her 
vivacity, and with little reason to accuse time 
of depredations on her beauty. 

In the islands, as in most other places, the 
inhabitants are of different rank, and one does 
not encroach here upon another. Where there 
is no commerce nor manufacture, he that is born 
poor can scarce become rich; and if none are 
able to buy estates, he that is born to land 
cannot annihilate his family by selling it. This 
was once the state of these countries. Perhaps 
there is no example, till within a century and a 



144 A JOURNEY TO THE 

half, of any family whose estate was alienated 
otherwise than by violence or forfeiture. Since 
money has been brought aniongst them, they 
have found, like others, the art of spending 
more than they receive; and I saw with grief 
the chief of a very ancient clan, whose island 
was condemned by law to be sold for the satis- 
faction of his creditors. 

The name of highest dignity is Laird, of 
which there are in the extensive Isle of Sky 
only three, Macdonald, Macleod, and Mac- 
kinnon. The laird is the original owner of the 
land, whose natural power must be very great> 
where no man lives but by agriculture; and 
where the produce of the land is not conveyed 
through the labyrinths of traffick, but passes di- 
rectly from the hand that gathers it to the mouth 
that eats it. The laird has all those in his power 
that live upon his farms. Kings can, for the 
most part, only exalt or degrade. The laird at 
pleasure can feed or starve, can give bread or 
withhold it. This inherent power was yet 
strengthened by the kindness of consanguinity, 
and the reverence of patriarchal authority. The 
laird was the father of the clan, and his tenants 
commonly bore his name. And to these prin- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 145 

ciplcs of original command was added, for many 
ages, an exclusive right of legal jurisdiction. 

This multifarious and extensive obligation 
operated with force scarcely credible. Every 
diUy, moral or political, was absorbed in affec- 
tion and adherence to the chief. Not many 
years have passed since the clans knew no law 
but the laird's will. He told them to whom 
they should be friends or enemies, what king 
they should obey, and what religion they should 
profess. 

When the Scots first rose in arms against the 
succession of the house of Hanover, Lovat, the 
chief of the Frasers, was in exile for a rape. 
The Frasers were very numerous, and very 
zealous against the government. A pardon was 
sent to Lovat. He came to the English camp, 
and the clan immediately deserted to him. 

Next in dignity to the laird is the tacksman, 
a large taker or leaseholder of land, of which 
he keeps part, as a domain in his own hand, 
and lets part to undertenants. The tacksman 
is necessarily a man capable of securing to the 
laird the whole rent, and' is commonly a colla- 
teral relation. These tacks, or subordinate pos- 
sessions, were long considered as hereditary, 

N 



146 A JOURNEY TO THE 

and the occupant was distinguished by the 
name of the place at which he resided. He 
held a middle station, by which the higliest and 
the lowest orders were connected. He paid rent 
and reverence to the laird, and received them 
from the tenants. This tenure still subsists, 
with its original operation, but not with the 
primitive stability. Since the islanders, no 
longer content to live, have learned the desire 
of growing rich, an ancient dependent is in 
danger of giving way to a higher bidder, at the 
expense of domestick dignity and hereditary 
power. The stranger, whose money buys him 
preference, considers himself as paying for all 
that he has, and is indifferent about the laird's 
honour or safety. The commodiousness of 
money is indeed great; but there are some ad- 
vantages which money cannot buy, and which 
therefore no wise man will by the love of money 
be tempted to forego. 

I have found in the hither parts of Scotland, 
men not defective in judgment or general ex- 
perience, who consider the tacksman as a use- 
less burden of the groimd, as a drone who lives 
upon the product of an estate, without the right 
of property, or the merit of labour, and who 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 147 

impoverishes at once the landlord and the te- 
nant. The land, say they, is let to the tacks- 
man at sixpence an acre, and by him to the te- 
nant at tenpence. Let the owner be the im- 
mediate landlord to all the tenants; if he sets 
the ground at eightpence, he will increase his 
revenue by a fourth part, and the tenant's bur- 
den will be diminished by a fifth. 

Those who pursue this train of reasoning, 
seem not sufficiently to inquire whither it will 
lead them, nor to know that it will equally show 
the propriety of suppressing all wholesale trade, 
of shutting up the shops of every man who sells 
what he does not make, and of extruding all 
whose agency and profit intervene between the 
manufacturer and the consumer. They may, 
by stretching their understandings a little wider, 
comprehend, that all those who by undertaking 
large quantities of manufacture, and affording 
employment to many labourers, make them- 
selves considered as benefactors to the publick, 
have only been robbing their workmen with 
one hand, and their customers with the other. 
If Crowley had sold only what he could make, 
and all his smiths had wrought their own iron 
with their own hammers, he would have lived 



148 A JOURNEY TO THE 

on less, and they would have sold their work 
for more. The salaries of superintendants and 
clerks would have been partly saved, and partly 
shared, and nails been sometimes cheaper by a 
farthing in a hundred. But then if the smith 
could not have found an immediate purchaser, 
he must have deserted his anvil; if there had 
by accident at any time been more sellers than 
buyers, the workmen must have reduced their 
profit to nothing, by underselling one another; 
and as no great stock could have been in any 
hand, no sudden demand of large quantities 
could have been answered, and the builder 
must have stood still till the nailer could sup- 
ply him. 

According to these schemes, universal plen- 
ty is to begin and end in universal misery. 
Hope and emulation will be utterly extinguish- 
ed; and as all must obey the call of immediate 
necessity, nothing that requires extensive views, 
or provides for distant consequences, will ever 
be performed. 

To the southern inhabitants of Scotland, the 
state of the mountains and the islands is equally 
unknown with that of Borneo or Sumatra: Of 
both they have only heard a little, and guess 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 149 

the rest. They are strangers to the language 
and the manners, to the advantages and wants 
of the people, whose life they would model, and 
whose evils they would remedy. 

Nothing is less difficult than to procure one 
convenience by the forfeiture of another. A 
soldier may expedite his march by throwing 
away his arms. To banish the tacksman is 
easy, to make a country plentiful by diminish- 
ing the people, is an expeditious mode of hus- 
bandry; but that abundance, which there is 
nobody to enjoy, contributes little to human 
happiness. 

As the mind must govern the hands, so in 
every society the man of intelligence must di- 
rect the man of labour. If the tacksmen be 
taken away, the Hebrides must in their present 
state be given up to grossness and ignorance; 
the tenant, for want of instruction, will be un- 
skilful, and for want of admonition will be ne- 
gligent. The laird, in these wide estates, which 
often consist of islands remote from one ano- 
ther, cannot extend his personal influence to all 
his tenants; and the steward having no dignity 
annexed to his character, can have little autho- 
rity among men taught to pay reverence only 
N 2 



150 A JOURNEY TO THE 

to birth, and who regard the tacksman as their 
hereditary superiour; nor can the steward have 
equal zeal for the prosperity of an estate pro- 
fitable only to the laird, with the tacksman, 
who has the laird's income involved in his own. 

The only gentlemen in the islands are the 
lairds, the tacksmen, and the ministers, who 
frequently improve their livings by becoming 
fiirmers. If the tacksmen be banished, who 
will be left to impart knowledge, or impress ci- 
vility? The laird must always be at a distance 
from the greater part of his lands; and if he 
resides at all upon them, must drag his days in 
solitude, having no longer either a friend or a 
companion; he will therefore depart to some 
more comfortable residence, and leave the te- 
nants to the wisdom and mercy of a factor. 

Of tenants there are diiferent orders, as they 
have greater or less stock. Land is sometimes 
leased to a small fellowship, who live in a clus- 
ter of huts, called a tenant's town, and are 
bound jointly and separately for the payment of 
their rent. These, I believe, employ in the care 
of their cattle, and the labour of tillage, a kind 
of tenants yet lower; who having a hut, with 
grass for a certain number of cows and sheep, 
pay their rent by a stipulated quantity of labour. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 151 

The condition of donncstick servants, or the 
price of occasional labour, I do not know with 
certainty. I was told that tlie maids have sheep, 
and are allowed to spin for their own clothing; 
perhaps they have no pecuniary wages, or none 
but in very wealthy families. The state of life 
which has hitherto been purely pastoral, begins 
now to be a little variegated with commerce; 
but novelties enter by degrees, and till one 
mode has fully prevailed over the other, no 
settled notion can be formed. 

Such is the system of insular subordination, 
which, having little variety, cannot afford much 
delight in the view, nor long detain the mind 
in contemplation. The inhabitants were for a 
long time perhaps not unhappy; but their con- 
tent was a muddy mixture of pride and igno- 
rance, an indifference for pleasures which they 
did not know, a blind veneration for their 
chiefs, and a strong conviction of their own im- 
portance. 

Their pride has been crushed by the heavy 
hand of a vindictive conqueror, whose severities 
have been followed by laws, which, though 
they cannot be called cruel, have produced 
much discontent, because they operate upon the 



152 A JOURNEY TO THE 

surface of life, and make every eye bear wit- 
ness to subjection. To be compelled to a new 
dress has always been found painful. 

Their chiefs being now deprived of their ju- 
risdiction, have already lost much of their influ- 
ence; and as they gradually degenerate from 
patriarchal rulers to rapacious landlords, they 
will divest themselves of the little that remains. 

That dignity which they derived from an 
opinion of their military importance, the law, 
which disarmed them, has abated. An old 
gentleman, delighting himself with the recol- 
lection of better days, related, that forty years 
ago, a chieftain walked out attended by ten 
or twelve followers, with their arms rattling. 
That animating rabble has now ceased. The 
chief has lost his formidable retinue; and the 
Highlander walks his heath unarmed and de- 
fenceless, with the peaceable submission of a 
French peasant or English cottager. 

Their ignorance grows every day less, but 
their knowledge is yet of little other use than 
to show them their wants. They are now in 
the period of education, and feel the uneasiness 
of discipline, without yet perceiving the benefit 
of instruction. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 15S 

The last law, by which the Highlanders arc 
deprived of their arms, has operated with effi- 
cacy beyond expectation. Of former statutes 
made with the same design, the execution had 
been feeble, and the effect inconsiderable. Con- 
cealment was undoubtedly practised, and per- 
haps often with connivance. There was ten- 
derness or partiality on one side, and obstinacy 
©n the other. But the law which followed the 
victory of Culloden, found the whole nation 
dejected and intimidated; informations were 
given without danger, and without fear, and 
the arms were collected with such rigour, that 
every house was despoiled of its defence. 

To disarm part of the Highlands, could give 
no reasonable occasion of complaint. Every 
government must be allowed the power of ta- 
king away the weapon that is lifted against it. 
But the loyal clans murmured, with some ap- 
pearance of justice, that after having defended 
the king, they were forbidden for the future to 
defend themselves; and that the sword should 
be forfeited, which had been legally employed. 
Their case is undoubtedly hard, but in political 
regulations, good cannot be complete, it can 
only be predominant* 



154 A JOURNEY TO THE 

Whether by disarming a people thus broken 
into sev' ral tribes, and thus remote from the 
seat of power, more good than evil has been 
produced, may deserve inquiry. The supreme 
power in every community has the right of 
debarring every individual, and every subordi- 
nate society, from selfdefence, only because 
the supreme power is able to defend them; 
and therefore where the governour cannot act, 
he must trust the subject to act for himself. 
These islands might be wasted with lire and 
sword before their sovereign would know their 
distress. A gang of robbers, such as has been 
lately found confederating themselves in the 
Highlands, might lay a wide region under con- 
tribution. The crew of a petty privateer might 
land on the largest and most wealthy of the 
islands, and riot without control in cruelty and 
waste. It was observed by one of the chiefs of 
Sky, that fifty armed men might, without re- 
sistance, ravage the country. Laws that place 
the subjects in such a state, contravene the first 
principles of the compact of authority: they 
exact obedience, and yield no protection. 

It affords a generous and manly pleasure to 
conceive a little nation gathering its fruits and 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 155 

tending its herds with fearless confidence, 
though it lies open on every side to invasion; 
where, in contempt of walls and trenches, 
every man sleeps securely with his sword beside 
him; where all on the first approach of hostility 
came together at the call to battle, as at a sum- 
mons to a festal show; and committing their 
cattle to the care of those w hom age or nature 
has disabled, engage the enemy with that com- 
petition for hazard and for glory which operate 
in men that fight under vhe eye of those whose 
dislike or kindness they have always considered 
as the greatest evil or the greatest good. 

This was, in the beginning of the present 
century, the state of the Highlands. Every 
man was a soldier, who partook of national 
confidence, and interested himself in national 
honour. To lose this spirit, is to lose what no 
small advantage will compensate. 

It may likewise deserve to be inquired, whe- 
ther a great nation ought to be totally com- 
mercial? whether, amidst the uncertainty of 
human affairs, too much attention to one mode 
of happiness may not endanger others? whe- 
ther the pride of riches must not sometimes 
have recourse to the protection of courage? 



156 A JOURNEY TO THE 

and whether, if it be necessary to preserve io 
some part of the empire the military spirit, it 
can subsist more commodiously in any place, 
than in remote and unprofitable provinces, 
where it can commonly do little harm, and 
whence it may be called forth at any sudden 
exigence? 

It must however be confessed, that a man 
who places honour only in successful violence, 
is a very troublesome and pernicious animal in 
time of peace; and that the martial character 
cannot prevail in a whole people, but by the 
diminution of all other virtues. He that is ac- 
customed to resolve all right into conquest, 
will have very little tenderness or equity. All 
the friendship in such a life can only be a con- 
federacy of invasion, or alliance of defence. 
The strong must flourish by force, and the weak 
subsist by stratagem. 

Till the Highlanders lost their ferocity, with 
their arms, they suffered from each odier all 
that malignity could dictate, or precipitance 
could act. Every provocation was revenged 
with blood, and no man that ventured mto 
a numerous company, by whatever occasion 
brought together, was sure of returning without 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 157 

a wound. If they are now exposed to foreign 
hostilities, they may talk of the danger, but can 
seldom feel it. If they are no longer martial, 
they are no longer quarrelsome. Misery is 
caused for the most part, not by a heavy crush 
of disaster, but by the corrosion of less visible 
evils, which canker enjoyment, and undermine 
security. The visit of an invader is necessarily 
rare, but domestick animosities allow no cessa- 
tion. 

The abolition of the local jurisdictions, which 
had for so many ages been exercised by the 
chiefs, has likewise its evil and its good. The 
feudal constitution naturally diffused itself into 
long ramifications of subordinate authority. To 
this general temper of the government was 
added the peculiar form of the country, broken 
by mountains into many subdivisions scarcely 
accessible but to the natives, and guarded by 
passes, or perplexed with intricacies, through 
which national justice could not find its way. 

The power of deciding controversies, and of 
punishing offences, as some such power there 
must always be, was intrusted to the lairds of 
the country, to those whom the people consi- 
dered as their natural judges. It cannot be 
o 



158 A JOURNEY TO THE 

supposed that a rugged proprietor of the rocks, 
unprincipled and unenlightened, was a nice re- 
solver of entangled claims, or very exact in pro- 
portioning punishment to offences. But the 
more he indulged his own will, the more he 
held his vassals in dependence. Prudence and 
innocence, without the favour of the chief, con- 
ferred no security; and crimes involved no dan- 
ger, when the judge was resolute to acquit. 

When the chiefs were men of knowledge 
and virtue, the convenience of a domestick 
judicature was great. No long journeys were 
necessary, nor artificial delays could be practis- 
ed; the character, the alliances, and interests of 
the litigants were known to the court, and all 
false pretences were easily detected. The sen- 
tence, when it was past, could not be evaded; 
the power of the laird superseded formalities, 
and justice could not be defeated by interest or 
stratagem. 

I doubt not but that since the regular judges 
have made their circuits through the whole 
country, right has been everywhere more 
wisely and more equally distributed; the com- 
plaint is, that litigation is grown troublesome, 
and that the magistrates are too few, and there- 
fore often too remote for general convenience* 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 159 

Many of the smaller islands have no legal of- 
ficer within them. I once asked, If a crime 
should be committed, by what authority the 
offender could be seized? and was told, that 
the laird would exert his right; a right which 
he must now usurp, but which surely necessity 
must vindicate, and which is therefore yet exer- 
cised in lower degrees by some of the proprie- 
tors, w^hen legal processes cannot be obtained. 

In all greater questions, however, there is 
now happily an end to all fear or hope from 
malice or from favour. The roads are secure in 
those places through which, forty years ago, no 
traveller could pass without a convoy. Ail trials 
of right by the sword are forgotten, and the 
mean are in as little danger from the powerful 
as in other places. No scheme of policy has, 
in any country, yet brought the rich and poor 
on equal terms into courts of judicature. Per- 
haps experience, improving on experience, may 
in time effect it. 

Those who have long enjoyed dignity and 
power ought not to lose it without some equi- 
valent. There was paid to the chiefs by the 
publick, in exchange for their privileges, per- 
haps a sum greater than most of them had ever 



160 A JOURNEY TO THE 

possessed, which excited a thirst for riches, of 
which it showed them the use. When the power 
of birth and station ceases, no hope remains 
but from the prevalence of money. Power and 
wealth supply the place of each other. Power 
confers the ability of gratifying our desire with- 
out the consent of others. Wealth enables us 
to obtain the consent of others to our gratifica- 
tion. Power, simply considered, whatever it 
confers on one, must take from another. Wealth 
enables its owner to give to others, by taking 
only from himself. Power pleases the violent 
and proud: wealth delights the placid and the 
timorous. Youth therefore flies at power, and 
age groveis after riches. 

The chiefs divested of their prerogatives, ne- 
cessarily turned their thoughts to the improve- 
ment of their revenues, and expect more rent^ 
as they have less homage. The tenant, who is 
far from perceiving that his condition is made 
better in the same proportion as that of his 
landlord is made worse, does not immediately 
see why his industry is to be taxed more hea- 
vily than before. He refuses to pay the de- 
mand, and is ejected; the ground is then let to 
a stranger, who perhaps brings a larger stock 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 16 i 

but who, taking the land at its full price, treats 
with the laird upon equal terms, and considers 
him not as a chief, but as a trafficker in land. 
Thus the estate perhaps is improved, but the 
clan is broken. 

It seems to be the general opinion that the 
rents have been raised with too much eager- 
ness. Some regard must be paid to prejudice. 
Those who have hitherto paid but little, will 
not suddenly be persuaded to pay much, though 
they can afford it. As ground is gradually im- 
proved, and the value of money decreases, the 
rent may be raised without any diminution of 
the farmer's profits: yet it is necessary in these 
countries, where the ejection of a tenant is a 
greater evil than in more populous places, to 
consider not merely Vv hat the land will pro- 
duce, but with what ability the inhabitant can 
cultivate it. A certain stock can allow but a 
certain payment; for if the land be doubled, 
and the stock remains the same, the tenant be- 
comes no richer. The proprietors of the High- 
lands might perhaps often increase their income, 
by subdividing the farms, and allotting to every 
occupier only so many acres as he can profit- 
ably employ, but that they want people. 
O 2 



162 A JOURNEY TO THE 

There seems now, whatever be the cause, to 
be through a great part of the Higlilands a ge- 
neral discontent. That adherence which was 
lately professed by every man to the chief of 
his name, has now little prevalence; and he 
that cannot live as he desires at home, listens to 
the tale of fortunate islands and happy regions, 
where every man may have land of his own, 
and eat tlie product of his labour without a 
superiour. 

Those who have obtained grants of Ameri- 
can lands, have, as is well known, invited set- 
tlers from all quarters of the globe; and among 
oiher places, where oppression might produce 
a wish for new habitations, their emissaries 
would not fail to try their persuasions in the 
isles of Scotland, where at the time when the 
clans were newly disunited from their chiefs, 
and exasperated by unprecedented exactions, 
it is no wonder that they prevailed. 

Whether the mischiefs of emigration were 
immediately perceived, may be justly question- 
ed. They who went first, were probably such 
as could best be spared; but the accounts sent 
by the earliest adventurers, whether true or 
false, inclined many to follow them; and whole 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 163 

neighbourhoods formed parties for removal; so 
that departure from their native country is no 
longer exile. He that goes thus accompanied, 
carries with him all that makes life pleasant. 
He sits down in a better climate, surrounded 
by his kindred and his friends: they carry with 
them their language, their opinions, their pop- 
ular songs, and hereditary merriment: they 
change nothing but their place of abode: and 
of that change they perceive the benefit. 

This is the real effect of emigration, if those 
that go away together settle on the same spot, 
and preserve their ancient union. But some re- 
late that these adventurous visitants of unknown 
regions, after a voyage passed in dreams of plen- 
ty and felicity, are dispersed at last upon a syl- 
van wilderness, where their first years must be 
spent in toil, to clear the ground which is af- 
terwards to be tilled, and that the whole effect 
of their undertaking is only more fatigue and 
equal scarcity. 

Both accounts may be suspected. Those who 
are gone will endeavour by every art to draw 
others after them; for as their numbers are 
greater, they will provide better for themselves. 
When Nova Scotia was first peopled, I remem- 



164 A JOURNEr TO THE 

ber a letter, published under the character of a 
new planter, who related how much the climate 
put him in mind of Italy. Such intelligence the 
Hebridians probably receive from their trans- 
marine correspondents. But with equal temp- 
tations of interest, and perhaps with no greater 
niceness of veracity, the owners of the islands 
spread stories of American hardships to keep 
their people content at home. 

Some method to stop this epidemick desire 
of wandering, which spreads its contagion from 
valley to valley, deserves to be sought with 
great diligence. In more fruitful countries, the 
removal of one, only makes room for the suc- 
cession of another; but in the Hebrides, the loss 
of an inhabitant leaves a lasting vacuity; for 
nobody born in any other parts of the world 
will choose this country for his residence; and 
an island once depopulated will remain a desert, 
as long as the present facility of travel gives 
every one who is discontented and unsettled, 
the choice of h s abode. 

Let it be inquired whether the first intention 
of those who are fluttering on the wing, and col- 
lecting a flock that they may take their flight, 
be to attain good, or to avoid evil. If they are 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 165 

dissatisfied with that part of the globe, which 
their birth has allotted them, and resolve not to 
live without the pleasures of happier climates: 
if they long for bright suns, and calm skies, and 
flowery fields, and fragrant gardens, I know not 
by what eloquence they can be persuaded, or 
by what offers they can be hired, to stay. 

But if they are driven from their native coun- 
try by positive evils, and disgusted by ill treat- 
ment, real or imaginary, it were fit to remove 
their grievances, and quiet their resentment; 
since, if they have been hitherto undutiful sub- 
jects, they will not much mend their principles 
by American conversation. 

To allure them into the army, it was thought 
proper to indulge them in the continuance of 
their national dress. If this concession could 
have any effect, it might easily be made. That 
dissimilitude of appearance, which was sup- 
posed to keep them distinct from the rest of the 
nation, might disincline them from coalescing 
with the Pennsylvanians or people of Connec- 
ticut. If the restitution of their arms will recon- 
cile them to their country, let them have again 
those weapons, which will not be more mis- 
chievous at home than in the colonies. That 



166 A JOURNEY TO THE 

they may not fly from the increase of rent, I 
know not whether the general good does not 
require that the landlords be, for a time, re- 
strained in their demands, and kept quiet by 
pensions proportionate to their loss. 

To hinder insurrection by driving away the 
people, and to govern peaceably by having no 
subjects, is an expedient that argues no great 
profundity of politicks. To soften the obdurate, 
to convince the mistaken, to mollify the re- 
sentful, are worthy of a statesman; but it af- 
fords a legislator little selfapplause to consider, 
that where there was formerly an insurrection, 
there is now a wilderness. 

It has been a question often agitated without 
solution, why those northern regions are now 
so thinly peopled, which formerly overwhelmed 
with their armies the Roman empire. The 
question supposes what 1 believe is not true, 
that they hM once more inhabitants than they 
could maintain, and overflowed only because 
they were full. 

This is to estimate the manners of all coun- 
tries and ages by our own. Migration, while 
the state of life was unsettled, and there was 
little communication of intelligence between 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 167 

distant places, was, among the wilder nations of 
Europe, capricious and casual. An adventitious 
projector heard of a fertile coast unoccupied, 
and led out a colony; a chief of renown for 
bravery, called the young men together, and 
led them out to try what fortune would present. 
When Caesar was in Gaul, he found the Helve- 
tians preparing to go they knew not whither, 
and put a stop to their motions. They settled 
again in their own country, where they were 
so far from wanting room, that they had accu- 
mulated three years' provision for their march. 
The religion of the North was military; if 
they could not find enemies, it was their duty 
to make them; they travelled in quest of dan- 
ger, and willingly took the chance of empire or 
death. If their troops were numerous, the 
countries from which they were collected are of 
vast extent, and without much exuberance of 
people great armies may be raised where every 
man is a soldier. But their true numbers were 
never known. Those who were conquered by 
them are their historians, and shame may have 
excited them to say, that they were overwhelm- 
ed with multitudes. To count is a modern prac- 
tice, the ancient method was to guess; and when 
numbers are guessed they are always magnified. 



168 A JOURNEY TO THE 

Thus England has for several years been 
filled with the achievements of seventy thou- 
sand Highlanders employed in America. I 
have heard from an English officer, not much 
inclined to favour them, that their behaviour 
deserved a very high degree of military praise; 
but their number has been much exaggerated. 
One of the ministers told me, that seventy thou- 
sand men could not have been found in all the 
Highlands, and that more than twelve thousand 
never took the field. Those that went to the 
American war, went to destruction. Of the old 
Highland regiment, consisting of twelve hun- 
dred, only seventy-six survived to see their 
country again. 

The Golhick swarms have at least been mul- 
tiplied with equal liberality. That they bore no 
great proportion to the inhabitants, in whose 
countries they settled, is plain from the paucity 
of northern words now found in the provincial 
languages. Their country was not deserted for 
want of room, because it was covered with fo- 
rests of vast extent; and the first efiect of pleni- 
tude of inhabitants is the destruction of wood. 
As the Europeans spread over America, the 
lands are gradually laid naked. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 169 

I would not be understood to say, that ne- 
cessity had never any part in their expeditions. 
A nation, whose agriculture is scanty or un- 
skilful, may be driven out by famine. A nation 
of hunters may have exhausted their game. I 
only affirm that the northern regions were not, 
when their irruptions subdued the Romans, 
overpeopled with regard to their real extent of 
territory, and power of fertility. In a country 
fully inhabited, however afterward laid waste, 
evident marks will remain of its former popu- 
lousness. But of Scandinavia and Germany, 
nothing is known but that as we trace their 
state upwards into antiquity, their woods were 
greater, and their cultivated ground was less. 

That causes very different from want of room 
may produce a general disposition to seek ano- 
ther country, is apparent from the present con- 
duct of the Highlanders, who are in some places 
ready to threaten a total secession. The num- 
bers which have already gone, though like 
other numbers they may be magnified, are very 
great, and such as if they had gone together 
and agreed upon any certain settlement, might 
have founded an independent government in 
the depths of the western continent. Nor are 



170 A JOURNEY TO THE 

they only the lowest and most indigent; many 
men of considerable wealth have taken with 
them their train of labourers and dependants; 
and if they continue the feudal scheme of po- 
lity, may establish new clans in the other hemi- 
sphere. 

That the immediate motives of their deser- 
tion must be imputed to their landlords, may 
be reasonably concluded, because some lairds 
of more prudence and less rapacity have kept 
their vassals undiminished. From Raasay only 
one man had been seduced, and at Col there 
was no wish to go away. 

The traveller who comes hither from more 
opulent countries, to speculate upon the re- 
mains of pastoral life, will not much wonder 
that a common Highlander has no strong adhe- 
rence to his native soil; for of animal enjoy- 
ments, or of physical good, he leaves nothing 
that he may not find again wheresoever he may 
be thrown. 

The habitations of men in the Hebrides may 
be distinguished into huts and houses. By a 
house^ I mean a building with one story over 
another; by a hut, a dwelling with only one 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 171 

floor. The laird, who formerly lived in a castle, 
now lives in a house; sometimes sufficiently 
neat, but seldom very spacious or splendid. 
The tacksmen and the mmisters have com- 
monly houses. Wherever there is a house, the 
stranger finds a welcome ; and to the other 
evils of exterminating tacksmen may be added 
the unavoidable cessation of hospitality, or the 
devolution of too heavy a burden on the mi- 
nisters. 

Of the houses little can be said. They are 
small, and by the necessity of accumulating 
stores, where there are so few opportunities of 
purchase, the rooms are very heterogeneously 
filled. With want of cleanliness it were ingra- 
titude to reproach them. The servants having 
been bred upon the naked earth, think every 
floor clean, and the quick succession of guests, 
perhaps not always over-elegant, does not al- 
low much time for adjusting their apartments. 

Huts are of many gradations; from murky 
dens to commodious dwellings. 

The wall of a common hut is always built 
without mortar, by a skilful adaptation of loose 
stones. Sometimes perhaps a double wall of 
stones is raised, and the intermediate space 



172 A JOURNEY TO THE 

filled with earth. The air is thus completely 
excluded. Some walls are, I think, formed of 
turfs, held together by a wattle, or texture of 
twigs. Of the meanest huts, the first room is 
lighted by the entrance, and the second by the 
smoke hole. The fire is usually made in the 
middle. But there are huts, or dwellings, of 
only one story, inhabited by gentlemen, which 
have walls cemented with mortar, glass win- 
dows, and boarded floors. Of these all have 
chimneys, and some chimneys have grates. 

The house and the furniture are not always 
nicely suited. We were driven once, by missing 
a passage, to the hut of a gentleman, where, 
after a very liberal supper, when I was con- 
ducted to my chamber, I found an elegant bed 
of Indian cotton, spread with fine sheets. The 
accommodation was flattering; I undressed my- 
self, and felt my feet in the mire. The bed 
stood upon the bare earth, which a long course 
of rain had softened to a puddle. 

In pastoral countries the condition of the 
lowest rank of people is sufficiently wretched. 
Among manufacturers, men that have no pro- 
perty may have art and industry, which make 
them necessary, and therefore valuable. But 



WESTERN ISLANDS. I73 

where flocks and corn are the only wealth, 
there are always more hands than work, and 
of that work there is little in which skill and 
dexterity can be much distinguished. He there- 
fore who is born poor never can be rich. The 
son merely occupies the place of the father, and 
life knows nothing of progression or advance- 
ment. 

The petty tenants, and labouring peasants, 
live in miserable cabins, which afford them lit- 
tle more than shelter from the storms. The 
boor of Norway is said to make all his ow^n 
utensils. In the Hebrides, whatever might be 
their ingenuity, the w^ant of wood leaves them 
no materials. They are probably content with 
such accommodations as stones of difi'erent 
forms and sizes can afford them. 

Their food is not better than their lodging. 
They seldom taste the flesh of laud animals, 
for here are no markets. What each man eats 
is from his own stock. The great effect of mo- 
ney is to break property into small parts. In 
towns, he that has a shilling may have a piece 
of meat; but w^here there is no commerce, no 
man can eat mutton but by killing a sheep. 

Fish, in fair weather, they need not want; 
P 2 



1 74 A JOURNEY TO THE 

but, I believe, man never lives long on fish but 
by constraint; he will rather feed upon roots 
and berries. 

The only fuel of the islands is peat. Their 
wood is all consumed, and coal they have not 
yet found. Peat is dug out of the marshes, 
from the depth of one foot to that of six. That 
is accounted the best which is nearest the sur- 
face. It appears to be a mass of black eardi 
held together by vegetable fibres. I knoAv not 
whether the earth be bituminous, or whether 
the fibres be not the only combustible part; 
which, by heating the interposed earth red hot, 
make a burning mass. The heat is not very 
strong nor lasting. The ashes are yellovv^ish, 
and in a large quantity. When they dig peat, 
they cut it into square pieces, and pile it up to 
dry beside the house. In some places it has an 
offensive smell. It is like wood charred for the 
smith. The common method of making peat 
fires, is by heaping it on the hearth; but it 
burns wtII in grates, and in the best houses is 
so used. 

The common opinion is, that peat grows 
again where it has been cut; which, as it seems 
to be chiefly a vegetable substance, is not un- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 175 

likely to be true, whether known or not to 
those who relate it. 

There are w^itermills in Sky and Raasay; 
but w^here they are too far distant, the house- 
wives grind their oats with a quern or hand- 
mill, which consists of two stones, about a foot 
and a half in diameter; the low^r is a little con- 
vex, to which the concavity of the upper must 
be fitted. In the middle of the upper stone is 
a round hole, and on one side is a long handle. 
The grinder sheds the corn gradually into the 
hole wuth one hand, and works the handle round 
with the other. The corn slides down the con- 
vexity of the lowGT stone, and by the motion of 
the upper is ground in its passage. These stones 
are found in Lochabar. 

The islands afford few pleasures, except to 
-the hardy sportsman, who can tread the moor 
and climb the mountain. The distance of one 
family from another, in a country where travel- 
ling has so much difficulty, makes frequent in- 
tercourse impracticable. Visits last several days, 
and are commonly paid by water; yet I never 
saw a boat furnished with benches, or made 
commodious by any addition to the first fabrick. 
Conveniencies are not missed where they never 
were enjoyed. 



176 A JOURNEY TO THE 

The solace ^vhich the bagpipe can give they 
have long enjoyed; but among other changes, 
which the last revolution introduced, the use of 
the bagpipe begins to be forgotten. Some of 
the chief families still entertain a piper, whose 
office was anciently hereditary. Macrimmon 
was piper to Macleod, and Rankin to Maclean 
of Col. 

The tunes of the bagpipe are traditional. 
There has been in Sky, beyond all time of me- 
mory, a college of pipers, under the direction 
of Macrimmon, which is not quite extinct. 
There was another in Mull, superintended by 
Rankin, which expired about sixteen years ago. 
To these colleges, while the pipe retained its 
honour, the students of musick repaired for 
education. I have had my dinner exhilirated by 
the bagpipe, at Armydale, at Dunvegan, and 
in Col. 

The general conversation of the islanders has 
nothing particular. 1 did not meet with the 
inquisitiveness of which I have read, and sus- 
pect the judgment to have been rashly made. 
A stranger of curiosity comes into a place 
where a stranger is seldom seen; he importunes 
the people with questions, of which they cannot 



WESTERN ISLANDS. J77 

guess the motive, and gazes with surprise on 
things which they, having had them always be- 
fore their eyes, do not suspect of any thing 
wonderful. He appears to them like some being 
of another world, and then thinks it peculiar 
that they take their turn to inquire whence he 
eomes, and whither he is going. 

The islands were long unfurnished with in- 
struction for youth, and none but the sons of 
gentlemen could have any literature. There 
are now parochial schools, to which the lord of 
every manor pays a certain stipend. Here the 
children are taught to read; but by the rule of 
their institution, they teach only English, so 
that the natives read a language Avhich they may 
never use or understand. If a parish, which 
often happens, contains several islands, the 
school being but in one, cannot assist the rest. 
This is the state of Col, which, however, is 
more enlightened than some other places; for 
the deficiency is supplied by a young gentleman, 
who for his own improvement, travels every 
year on foot over the Highlands to the session 
at Aberdeen; and at his return, during the va- 
cation, teaches to read and write in his native 
island. 



178 A JOURNEY TO THE 

In Sky there are two grammar schools, 
where boarders are taken to be regularly educat- 
ed. The price of board is from three pounds, to 
four pounds ten shillings a year, and that of in- 
struction is half a crown a quarter. But the 
scholars are birds of passage, who live at school 
only in the summer; for in winter provisions 
cannot be made for any considerable number in 
one place. This periodical dispersion impresses 
strongly the scarcity of these countries. 

Having heard of no boarding school for la- 
dies nearer than Inverness, I suppose their edu- 
cation is generally domestick. The eldest daugh- 
ters of the higher flimilies are sent into the 
world, and may contribute by their acquisitions 
to the improvement of the rest. 

Women must here study to be either pleas- 
ing or useful. Their deficiencies are seldom 
supplied by very liberal fortunes. A hundred 
pounds is a portion beyond the hope of any but 
the laird's daughter. They do not indeed often 
give money with their daughters; the question 
is, How many cows a young lady will bring her 
husband? A rich maiden has from ten to forty; 
but two cows are a decent fortune for one whQ 
pretends to no distinction. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 179 

The religion of the islands is that of the Kirk 
of Scotland. The gentlemen with whom I 
conversed are all inclined to the English litur- 
gy; but they are obliged to maintain the esta- 
blished minister, and the country is too poor to 
afford payment to another, who must live wholly 
on the contribution of his audience. 

They therefore all attend the worship of the 
Kirk, as often as a visit from their minister, or 
the practicability of travelling gives them op- 
portunity; nor have they any reason to com- 
plain of insufficient pastors; for I saw not one in 
the islands, whom 1 had reason to think either 
deficient in learning, or irregular in life; but 
found several with whom I could not converse 
without wishing, as my respect increased, that 
they had not been Presbyterians. 

The ancient rigour of puritanism is now very 
much relaxed, though all are not yet equally 
enlightened. I sometimes met with prejudices 
sufficiently malignant, but they were prejudices 
of ignorance. The ministers in the islands had 
attained such knowledge as may justly be ad- 
mired in men, who have no motive to study, 
but generous curiosity, or, what is still better, 
desire of usefulness; with such politeness as so 



180 A JOURNEY TO THE 

narrow a circle of converse could not have 
supplied, but to minds naturally disposed to 
elegance. 

Reason and truth will prevail at last. The 
most learned of the Scottish doctors would now 
gladly admit a form of prayer, if the people 
would endure it. The zeal or rage of congre- 
gations has its different degrees. In some pa- 
rishes the Lord's Prayer is suffered: in others 
it is still rejected as a form; and he that should 
make it part of his supplication would be sus- 
pected of heretical pravity. 

The principle upon which extemporary 
prayer was originally introduced, is no longer 
admitted. The minister formerly, in the effusion 
of his prayer, expected immediate, and per- 
haps perceptible inspiration, and therefore 
thought it his duty not to think before what he 
should say. It is now universally confessed, 
that men pray as they speak on other occasions, 
according to the general measure of their abi- 
lities and attainments. Whatever each may think 
of a form prescribed by another, he cannot but 
believe that he can himself compose by study 
and meditation a better prayer than will rise in 
his mind at a sudden call; and if he has any 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 181 

hope of supernatural help, why may he not as 
well receive it when he writes as when he 
speaks? 

In the variety of mental powers, some must 
perform extemporary prayer with much imper- 
fection; and in the eagerness and rashness of 
contradictory opinions, if publick liturgy be left 
to the private judgment of every minister, the 
congregation may often be offended or misled. 

There is in Scotland, as among ourselves, a 
restless suspicion of popish machinations, and a 
clamour of numerous converts to the RomisH 
religion. The report is, I believe, in both parts 
of the island equally false. The Romish reli- 
gion is professed only in Egg and Canna, two 
small islands, into which the reformation never 
made its way. If any missionaries are busy in 
the Highlands, their zeal entitles them to re- 
spect even from those who cannot think favour- 
ably of their doctrine. 

The political tenets of the islanders I was not 
curious to investigate, and they were not eager 
to obtrude. Their conversation is decent and 
inoffensive. They disdain to drink for their 
principles, and there is no disaffection at their 
tables. I never heard a health offered by a 

Q 



182 A JOURNEY TO THE 

Highlander that might not have circulated with 
propriety within the precincts of the king's 
palace. 

Legal government has yet something of no- 
velty to which they cannot perfectly conform. 
The ancient spirit that appealed only to the 
sword is yet among them. The tenant of Scal- 
pa, an island belonging to Macdonald, took no 
care to bring his rent; when the landlord talk- 
ed of exacting payment, he declared his resolu- 
tion to keep his ground, and drive all intruders 
from the island, and continued to feed his cat- 
tle as on his own land, till it became necessary 
for the sheriff to dislodge him by violence. 

The various kinds of superstition which pre- 
vailed here, as in all other regions of ignorance, 
are, by the diligence of the ministers, almost 
extirpated. 

Of Browny, mentioned by Martin, nothing 
has been heard for many years. Browny was a 
sturdy fairy, who if he was fed and kindly treat- 
ed, would, as they said, do a great deal of work. 
They now pay him no wages, and are content 
to labour for themselves. 

In Troda, within these three and thirty years, 
milk was put every Saturday for '* Greogach,'' 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 183 

or *Hhe Old Man with the Long Beard." Whe- 
ther Greogach was courted as kind, or dreaded 
as terrible; whether they meant, by giving him 
the milk, to obtain good, or avert evil, I w^as 
not informed. The minister is now living by 
whom the practice was abolished. 

They have still among them a great number 
of charms for the cure of different diseases; 
they are all invocations, perhaps transmitted to 
them from the times of popery, which increas- 
ing knowledge will bring into disuse. 

They have opinions which cannot be ranked 
with superstition, because they regard only na- 
tural effects. They expect better crops of grain 
by sowing their seed in the moon's increase. 
The moon has great influence in vulgar philo- 
sophy. In my memory it was a precept annu- 
ally given in one of the English almanacks, " to 
** kill hogs when the moon was increasing, and 
*' the bacon would prove the better in boiling.'* 

We should have little claim to the praise of 
curiosity, if we had not endeavoured with par- 
ticular attention to examine the question of the 
second sight. Of an opinion received for cen- 
turies by a whole nation, and supposed to be 
confirmed through its whole descent by a series 



184 A JOURNEY TO THE 

of successive facts, it is desirable that the truth 
should be established, or the fallacy detected. 

The second sight is an impression made ei- 
ther by the mind upon the eye, or by the eye 
upon the mind, by which things distant or fu- 
ture are perceived, and seen as if they were 
present. A man on a journey far from home 
falls from his horse, another, who is perhaps at 
work about the house, sees him bleeding on the 
ground, commonly with a landscape of the 
place v/here the accident befalls him. Another 
seer, driving home his cattle, or wandering in 
idleness, or musing in the sunshine, is suddenly 
surprised by the appearance of a bridal cere- 
mony, or funeral procession, and counts the 
mourners or attendants, of whom, if he knows 
them, he relates the name, if he knows them 
not, he can describe the dresses. Things distant 
are seen at the instant when they happen. Of 
things future I know not that there is any rule 
for determining the time between the sight and 
the event. 

This receptive faculty, for power it cannot 
be called, is neither voluntary nor constant. 
The appearances have no dependence upon 
choice: they cannot be summoned, detained, 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 135 

or recalled. The impression is sudden, and the 
effect often painful. 

By the term second sight seems to be meant 
a mode of seeing, superadded to that which 
Nature generally bestows. In the Erse it is cal- 
led Taisch, which signifies likewise a spectre 
or a vision. I know not, nor is it likely that 
the Highlanders ever examined, whether by 
Taisch, used for second sight, they mean the 
power of seeing, or the thing seen. 

I do not find it to be true, as it is reported, 
that to the second sight nothing is presented 
but phantoms of evil. Good seems to have the 
same proportion in those visionary scenes as it 
obtains in real life. Almost all remarkable 
events have evil for their basis; and are either 
miseries incurred, or miseries escaped. Our 
sense is so much stronger of what we suffer, 
than of what we enjoy, that the ideas of pain 
predominate in almost every mind. What is re- 
collection but a revival of vexations, or history 
but a record of wars, treasons, and calamities? 
Death, which is considered as the greatest evil, 
happens to all. The greatest good, be it what 
it will, is the lot but of a part. 

That they should often see death is to be ex- 

Q2 



186 A JOURNEY TO THK 

pected; because death is an event frequent and 
important. But they see likewise more pleasing 
incidents. A gentleman told me, that when he 
had once gone far from his own island, one of 
his labouring servants predicted his return, and 
described the livery of his attendant, which he 
had never worn at home; and which had been, 
without any previous design, occasionally given 
him. 

Our desire of information was keen, and our 
inquiry frequent. Mr. Boswell's frankness and 
gaiety made every body communicative; and 
we heard many tales of these airy shows, with 
more or less evidence and distinctness. 

It is the common talk of the Lowland Scots, 
that the notion of the second sight is wearing 
away with other superstitions; and that its reali- 
ty is no longer supposed, but by the grossest 
people. How far its prevalence ever extended, 
or what ground it has lost, I know not. The 
islanders of all degrees, whether of rank or un- 
derstanding, universally admit it, except the 
ministers, who universally deny it, and are sus- 
pected to deny it, in consequence of a system, 
against conviction. One of them honestly told 
me, that he came to Sky with a resolution not 
to believe it. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 187 

Strong reasons for incredulity will readily 
occur. This faculty of seeing tilings out of sight 
is local, and commonly useless. It is a breach 
of the common order of things, without any 
visible reason or perceptible benefit. It is as- 
cribed only to a people very little enlightened; 
and among them, for the most part, to the mean 
and the ignorant. 

To the confidence of these objections it may 
be replied, that by presuming to determine 
what is fit, and what is beneficial, they presup- 
pose more knowledge of the universal system 
than man has attained; and therefore depend 
upon principles too complicated and extensive 
for our comprehension; and that there can be 
no security in the consequence, when the pre- 
mises are not understood; that the second sight 
is only wonderful because it is rare, for consi- 
dered in itself, it involves no more difficulty 
than dreams, or perhaps than the regular exer- 
cise of the cogitative faculty; that a general 
opinion of communicative impulses, or vision- 
ary representations, has prevailed in all ages 
and all nations; that particular instances have 
been given, with such evidence, as neither Ba- 
con nor Bayle has been able to resist; that sud- 



188 A JOURNEY TO THE 

den impressions, which the event has verified, 
have been felt by more than own or publish 
them; that the second sight of the Hebrides 
implies only the local frequency of a power, 
which is nowhere totally unknown; and that 
where we are unable to decide by antecedent 
reason, we must be content to yield to the force 
of testimony. 

By pretension to second sight, no profit was 
ever sought or gained. It is an involuntary af- 
fection, in which neither hope nor fear are 
known to have any part. Those who profess to 
feel it, do not boast of it as a privilege, nor are 
considered by others as advantageously distin- 
guished. They have no temptation to feign; 
and their hearers have no motive to encourage 
the imposture. 

To talk with any of these seers is not easy. 
There is one living in Sky, with whom we 
would have gladly conversed; but he was very 
gross and ignorant, and knew no English. The 
proportion in these countries of the poor to the 
rich is such, that if we suppose the quality to 
be accidental, it can very rarely happen to a 
man of education; and yet on such men it has 
sometimes fallen. There is now a second sighted 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 189 

gentleman in the Highlands, who complains of 
the terrors to which he is exposed. 

The foresight of the seers is not always pre- 
science: they are impressed with images, of 
which the event only shows them the meaning. 
They tell what they have seen to others, who 
are at that time not more knowing than them- 
selves, but may become at last very adequate 
witnesses, by comparing the narrative with its 
verification. 

To collect sufficient testimonies for the satis- 
iaction of the publick, or of ourselves, would 
have required more time than we could bestOvV. 
There is, against it, the seeming analogy of 
things confusedly seen, and little understood; 
and for it, the indistinct cry of national persua- 
sion, which may be perhaps resolved at last into 
prejudice and tradition. I never could advance 
my curiosity to conviction, but came away at 
last only willing to believe. 

As there subsists no longer in the islands 
much of that peculiar and discriminative form 
of life, of which the idea had delighted our 
imagination, we were willing to listen to such 
accounts of past times as would be given us. 
But we soon found what memorials were to be 



190 A JOURNEY TO THE 

expected from an illiterate people, whose whole 
time is a series of distress; where every morn- 
ing is laboui ing with expedients for the even- 
ing; and where all mental pains or pleasure arose 
from the dread of winter, the expectation of 
spring, the caprices of their chiefs, and the mo- 
tions of the neighbouring clans; where there 
was neither shame from ignorance, nor pride in 
knowledge; neither curiosity to inquire, nor 
vanity to communicate. 

The chiefs indeed were exempt from urgent 
penury, and daily difficulties; and in their 
houses were preserved what accounts remained 
of past ages. But the chiefs were sometimes 
ignorant and careless, and sometimes kept busy 
by turbulence and contention; and one genera- 
tion of ignorance effaces the whole series of un- 
written history. Books are faithful repositories, 
which may be awhile neglected or forgotten; 
but when they are opened again, will again im- 
part their instruction: memory, once interrupted, 
is not to be recalled. Written learning is a fixed 
luminary, which, after the cloud that had hid- 
den it has past away, is again bright in its pro- 
per station. Tradition is but a meteor, which, 
if once it falls, cannot be rekindled. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 191 

It seems to be universally supposed, that 
much of the local history was preserved by the 
bards, of whom one is said to have been retain- 
ed by every great family. After these bards 
were some of my first inquiries, and I received 
such answers as, for awhile, made me please 
myself with my increase of knowledge, for I had 
not then learned how to estimate the narration 
of a Highlander. 

They said that a great family had a bard and 
a senachi, who were the poet and historian of 
the house; and an old gentleman told me that 
he remembered one of each. Here was a dawn 
of intelligefice. Of men that had lived within 
memory some certain knowledge might be at- 
tained. Though the office had ceased, its ef- 
fects might continue; the poems might be found 
though there was no poet. 

Another conversation indeed informed me, 
that the same man was both bard and senachi. 
This variation discouraged me; but as the prac- 
tice might be different in different times, or at 
the same time in different families, there was 
yet no reason for supposing that I must neces- 
sarily sit down in total ignorance. 

Soon after I was told by a gentleman, who 



192 A JOURNEY TO THE 

is generally acknowledged the greatest master 
of Hebridian antiquities, that there had indeed 
once been both bards and senachies; and that 
senachi signified ** the Man of Talk," or of con- 
versation; but that neither bard nor senachi 
had existed for some centuries. I have no rea- 
son to suppose it exactly known at what time 
the custom ceased, nor did it probably cease in 
all houses at once. But whenever the practice 
of recitation was disused, the works, whether 
poetical orh istorical, perished with the authors, 
for in those times nothing had been written in 
the Erse language. 

Whether the '*Man of Talk" was a historian, 
whose office was to tell truth, or a storyteller, 
like those which were in the last century, and 
perhaps are now among the Irish, whose trade 
was only to amuse, it would now be vain to 
inquire. 

Most of the domestick offices were, I believe, 
hereditary; and probably the laureat of a clan 
was always the son of the last laureat. The 
history of the race could no otherwise be com- 
municated or retained; but what genius could 
be expected in a poet by inheritance? 

The nation was whollv illiterate. Neither 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 193 

bards nor senachies could write or read; but if 
they were ignorant, there was no danger of de- 
tection; they were believed by those whose 
vanity they flattered. 

The recital of genealogies, which has been 
considered as very efficacious to the preserva- 
tion of a true series of ancestry, was anciently 
made, when the heir of the family came to 
manly age. This practice has never subsisted 
within time of memory, nor was much credit 
due to such rehearsers, who might obtrude 
fictitious pedigrees, either to please their mas- 
ters, or to hide the deficiency of their own me- 
mories. 

Whore the chiefs of the Highlands have 
found the histories of their descent, is difficult 
to tell; for no Erse genealogy was ever written. 
In general this only is evident, that the princi- 
pal house of a clan must be very ancient, and 
that those must have lived long in a place, of 
whom it is not known when they came thither. 

Thus hopeless are all attempts to find any 
traces of Highland learning. Nor are their pri- 
mitive customs and ancient manner of life 
otherwise than very faintly and uncertainly 

remembered by the present race. 

R 



1 94 A JOURNEY TO THE 

' The peculiarities which strike the native of a 
commercial country, proceeded in a great mea- 
sure from the want of money. To the servants 
and dependants that were not domesticks, and if 
an estimate be made from the capacity of any 
of their old houses which I have seen, their do- 
mesticks could have been but few, were appro- 
priated certain portions of land for their support. 
Macdonald has a piece of ground yet, called 
the Bards or Senachies' field. When a beef was 
killed for the house, particular parts were claim- 
ed as fees by the several officers or w^orkmen. 
What was the right of each I have not learned. 
The head belonged to the smith, and the udder 
of a cow to the piper; the weaver had likewise 
his particular part; and so many pieces follow- 
ed these prescriptive claims, that the laird's was 
at last but little. 

The payment of rent in kind has been so long 
disused in England, that it is totally forgotten. 
It was practised very lately in the Hebrides, and 
probably still continues, not only in St. Kilda, 
where money is not yet known, but in others 
of the smaller and remoter islands. It were per- 
haps to be desired, that no change in this par- 
ticular should have been made. When the laird 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 195 

could only eat the produce of his lands, he was 
under the necessity of residing upon them; and 
when the tenant could not convert his stock 
into more portable riches, he could never be 
tempted away from his farm, from the only 
place where he could be wealthy. Money con- 
foujpds subordination, by overpo\^ering the dis- 
tinctions of rank and birth, and weakens autho- 
rity by supplying power of resistance, or expe- 
dients for escape. The feudal system is formed 
for a nation employed in agriculture, and has 
never long kept its hold where gold and silver 
have become common. 

Their arms were anciently the glaymore, or 
great twohanded sword, and afterwards the 
twoedged sword and target, or buckler, which 
was sustained on the left arm. In the midst of 
the target, which was made of wood, covered 
with leather, and studded with nails, a slender 
lance, about two feet long, was sometimes fix- 
ed; it was heavy and cumberous, and accord- 
ingly has for sometime past been gradually laid 
aside. Very few targets were at Culloden. The 
dirk, or broad dagger, I am afraid, was of more 
use in private quarrels than in battles. The 
Lochaber axe is only a slight alteration of the 
old English bill. 



196 A JOURNEY TO TlfE 

After all that has been said of the force and 
terrour of the Highland sword, I could not find 
that the art of defence was any part of common 
education. The gentleinen were perhaps some- 
times skilful gladiators, but the common men 
had no other powers than those of violence and 
courage. Yet it is well known, that the ons#t of 
the Highlanders was very formidable. As an 
army cannot consist of philosophers, a panick is 
easily excited by any unwonted mode of annoy- 
ance. New dangers are naturally magnified; and 
men accustomed only to exchange bullets at a 
distance, and rather to hear their enemies than 
see them, are discouraged and amazed when 
they find themselves encountered hand to hand, 
and catch the gleam of steel flashing in their 
faces. 

The Highland weapons gave opportunity for 
many exertions of personal courage, and some- 
tiipes for single combats in the field; like- those 
which occur so frequently in fabulous wars. 
At Falkirk, a gentleman now living, was, I sup- 
pose after the retreat of the king's troops, en- 
gaged at a distance from the rest with an Irish 
dragoon. They were both skilful swordsmen* 
and the contest was not easily decided: the dra- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 197 

goon at last had the advantage, and the High- 
lander called for quarter; but quarter was refu- 
sed him, and the fight continued till he was re- 
duced to defend himself upon his knee. At 
that instant one of the Macleods came to his 
rescue; who, as it is said, offered quarter to the 
dragoon, but he thought himself obliged to re- 
ject what he had before refused, and, as battle 
gives little time to deliberate, was immediately 
killed. 

Funerals were formerly solemnized by calling 
multitudes together, and entertaining them at 
great expense. This emulation of useless cost 
has been for some time discouraged, and at last 
in the Isle of Sky is almost suppressed. 

Of the Erse language, as I understand no- 
thing, I cannot say more than I have been told. 
It is the rude speech of a barbarous people, 
who had few thoughts to express, and were 
content, as they conceived grossly, to be grossly 
understood. After what has been lately talked 
of Highland bards and Highland genius, many 
wull startle when they are told, that the Erse 
never was a written language; that tliere is not 
in the world an Erse manuscript a hundred 

years old; and that the sounds of tlic High- 
R 2 



198 A JOURNEY TO THE 

landers were never expressed by letters, till 
some little books of piety were translated, and 
a metrical version of the Psalms was made by 
the Synod of Argyll. Whoever therefore now 
writes in this language, spells according to his 
own perception of the sound, and his own idea 
of the power of the letters. The Welsh and 
the Irish are cultivated tongues. The Welsh, 
two hundred years ago, insulted their English 
neighbours for the instability of their orthogra- 
phy; while the Erse merely floated in the 
breath of the people, and could therefore re- 
ceive little improvement. 

When a language begins to teem with books, 
it is tending to refinement; as those v. ho un- 
dertake to teach others must have undergone 
some labour in improving themselves, they set 
a proportionate value on their own thoughts, 
and wish to enforce them by efficacious expres- 
sions; speech becomes embodied and perma- 
nent; different modes and phrases are compar- 
ed, and the best obtains an establishment. By- 
degrees one age improves upon another. Ex- 
actness is first obtained, and afterwards ele- 
gance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in 
its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 199 

behind him, the new generations have all to 
learn. There may possibly be books without a 
polished language, but there can be no polished 
language without books. 

That the bards could not read more than the 
rest of their countrymen, it is reasonable to sup- 
pose; because, if they had read, they could 
probably have written; and how high their 
compositions may reasonably be rated, an in- 
quirer may best judge, by considering what 
stores of imagery, what principles of ratiocina- 
tion, what comprehension of knowledge, and 
what delicacy of elocution, he has known any 
man attain who cannot read. The state of the 
bards was yet more hopeless. He that cannot 
read, may now converse with those that can; 
but the bard was a barbarian among barbarians, 
who, knowing nothing himself, lived with 
others that knew no more. 

There has lately been in the islands one of 
these illiterate poets, who, hearing the bible 
read at church, is said to have turned the sacred 
history into verse. I heard part of a dialogue, 
composed by him, translated by a young lady 
in Mull, and thought it had more meaning 
than I expected from a man totally uneducat- 



OQO A JOURNEY TO THE 

ed; but he had some opportunities of know- 
ledge; he lived among a learned people. After 
all that has been done for the instruction of 
the Highlanders, the antipathy between their 
language and literature still continues; and no 
man that has learned only Erse, is, at this time, 
able to read. 

The Erse has many dialects, and the words 
used in some islands are not always known in 
others. In literate nations, though the pro- 
nunciation, and sometimes the words of com- 
mon speech may differ, as now in England, 
compared with the south of Scotland, yet there 
is a written diction, which pervades all dialects, 
and is understood in every province. But where 
the whole language is colloquial, he that has 
only one part never gets the rest, as he cannot 
get it but by change of residence. 

In an unwritten speech, nothing that is not 
very short is transmitted from one generation 
to another. Few have opportunities of hearing a 
long composition often enough to learn it, or 
have inclination to repeat it so often as is ne- 
cessary to retain it; and what is once forgotten 
is lost for ever. I believe there cannot be re- 
covered, in the whole Erse language, five hun- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 201 

dred lines of which there is any evidence to 
prove them a hundred years old. Yet I hear 
that the father of Ossian boasts of two chests 
more of ancient poetry, which he suppresses, 
because they are too good for the English. 

He that goes into the Highlands with a mind 
naturally acquiescent, and a credulity eager for 
wonders, may come back with an opinion very 
different from mine; for the inhabitants know- 
ing the ignorance of all strangers in their lan- 
guage and antiquities, perhaps are not very 
scrupulous adherents to truth; yet I do not say 
that they deliberately speak studied falsehood, 
or have a settled purpose to deceive. They have 
inquired and considered little, and do not al- 
ways feel their own ignorance. They are not 
much accustomed to be interrogated by others, 
and seem never to have thought upon interro- 
gating themselves; so that if they do not know 
what they tell to be true, they likewise do not 
distinctly perceive it to be false. 

Mr. Boswell was very diligent in his inqui- 
ries; and the result of his investigations was, 
that the answer to the second question was com- 
monly such as nullified the answer to the first. 

We were awhile told that they had an old 



202 A JOURNEY TO THE 

translation of the scriptures, and told it till it 
would appear obstinacy to inquire again; yet, by 
continued accumulation of questions, we found 
that the translation meant, if any meaning there 
were, was nothing else than the Irish bible. 

We heard of manuscripts that were or that 
had been in the hands of somebody's father or 
grandfather; but at last we had no reason to be- 
lieve they were other than Irish. Martin men- 
tions Irish, but never any Erse manuscripts, 
to be found in the islands in his time. 

I suppose my opinion of the poems of Ossian 
is already discovered. I believe they never ex- 
isted in any other form than that which we have 
seen. The editor or author never could show 
the original, nor can it be shown by any other. 
To revenge reasonable incredulity, by refusing 
evidence, is a degree of insolence with which 
the world is not yet acquainted; and stubborn 
audacity is the last refuge of guilt. It would be 
easy to show it if he had it; but whence could 
it be had? It is too long to be remembered, and 
the language formerly had nothing written. He 
has doubtless inserted names that circulate in 
popular stories, and may have translated some 
wandering ballads, if any can be found; and the 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 203 

names and some of the images being recollect- 
ed, make an inaccurate auditor imagine, by the 
help of Caledonian bigotry, that he has former- 
ly heard the whole. 

I asked a very learned minister in Sky, who 
had used all arts to make me believe the ge- 
nuineness of the book, whether at last he be- 
lieved it himself? but he would not answer. He 
wished me to be deceived for the honour of his 
country, but would not directly and formally 
deceive me. Yet has this man's testimony been 
publickly produced, as of one that held Fingal 
to be the work of Ossian. 

It is said, that some men of integrity profess 
to have heard parts of it, but they all heard 
them when they were boys; and it never was 
said that any of them could recite six lines. 
They remember names, and perhaps seme pro- 
verbial sentiments, and, having no distinct 
ideas, coin a resem])Iance without an original. 
The persuasion of the Scots, however, is far 
from universal; and in a question so capable of 
proof, why should doubt be suffered to conti- 
nue? The editor has been heard to say, that part 
of the poem was received by him in the Saxon 
character. He has then found, by some peculiar 



204 A JOURNEY TO THE 

fortune, an unwritten language, written in a 
character which the natives probably never be- 
held. 

I have yet supposed no imposture but in the 
publisher; yet I am far from certainty that 
some translations have not been lately made, 
that may now be obtruded as parts of the ori- 
ginal work. Credulity on one part is a strong 
temptation to deceit on the other, especially to 
deceit of which no personal injury is the con- 
sequence, and which flatters the author with 
his own ingenuity. The Scots have something 
to plead for their easy reception of an improba- 
ble fiction: they are seduced by their fondness 
for their supposed ancestors. A Scotchman 
must be a very sturdy moralist who does not 
love Scotland better than truth; he will always 
love it better than inquiry; and if falsehood 
flatters his vanity, will not be very diligent to 
detect it. Neither ought the English to be much 
influenced by Scotch authority; for of the past 
and present state of the whole Erse nation the 
Lowlanders are at least as ignorant as ourselves. 
To be ignorant is painful; but it is dangerous 
to quiet our uneasiness by the delusive opiate 
of hasty persuasion. 



WESTERN ISLAND^. 205 

But this is the age in which those who could 
not read have been supposed to wTite; in which 
the giants of antiquated romance have been ex- 
hibited as realities. If we know little of the an- 
cient Highlanders, let us not fill the vacuity 
with Ossian. If we have not searched the Ma- 
gellanick regions, let us however forbear to 
people them with Patagons. 

Having waited some days at Armydel, we 
were flattered at last with a wind that promised 
to convey us to Mull. We went on board a 
boat that was taking in kelp, and left the Isle 
of Sky behind us. We were doomed to expe- 
rience, like others, the danger of trusting to the 
wind, which blew against us, in a short time, 
with such violence, that we, being no seasoned 
sailors, were willing to call it a tempest. I was 
sea-sick, and lay down. Mr. Boswell kept the 
deck. The master knew not well whither to 
go; and our difficulties might perhaps have filled 
a very pathetick page, had not Mr. Maclean of 
Col, who, vvith every other qualification which 
insular life requires, is a very active and skilful 
mariner, piloted us safe into his own harbour. 

S 



206 A JOURNEY TO THE 

COL. 

in the morning we found ourselves under tht 
Isle of Col, where we landed, and passed the 
first day and night with captain Maclean, a gen- 
tleman who has lived some time in the East 
Indies; but having dethroned no nabob, is not 
too rich to settle in his own country. 

Next day the wind was fair, and we might 
have had an easy passage to Mull; but having, 
Gontrarily to our own intention, landed upon a 
new island, we would not leave it wholly unex- 
amined. We therefore suffered the vessel to 
depart without us, and trusted the skies for 
another wind. 

Mr. Maclean of Col, having a very nume- 
rous family, has, for some time past, resided at 
Aberdeen, that he may superintend their edu- 
cation, and leaves the young gentleman, our 
friend, to govern his dominions, with the full 
power of a Highland chief. By the absence of 
the laird's family, our entertainment was made 
more difficult, because the house was in a great 
degree disfurnished; but young Col's kindness 
and activity supplied all defects, and procured 
us more than sufficient accommodation. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 207 

Here I first mounted a little Highland steed; 
and, if there had been many spectators, should 
have been somewhat ashamed of my figure in 
the march. The horses of the islands, as of 
other barren countries, are very low: they are 
indeed musculous and strong, beyond what 
their size gives reason for expecting; but a 
bulky man upon one of their backs makes a 
very disproportionate appearance. 

From the habitation of captain Maclean we 
went to Grissipol, but called by the way on Mr. 
Hector Maclean, the minister of Col, whom we 
found in a hut, that is, a house of only one fioor, 
but with windows and chimney, and not inele- 
gantly furnished. Mr. Maclean has the repu- 
tation of great learning: he is seventy -seven 
years old, but not infirm, with a look of vene 
rable dignity, excelling what I remember in an\ 
other man. 

His conversation was not unsuitable to his 
appearance. I lost some of his goodwill, by 
treating a heretical writer with more regard 
than, in his opinion, a heretick could deserve. 
1 honoured his orthodoxy, and did not much 
censure his asperity. A man who has settled 
his opinions does not love to have the tranquil- 



2Q8 A JOURNEY TO THE 

lity of his conviction disturbed; and at se vent} - 
seven it is time to be in earnest. 

Mention was made of the Erse translation of 
the New Testament, w^hich has been lately 
published, and of which the learned Mr. Mac- 
queen of Sky spoke with commendation; but 
Mr. Maclean said he did not use it, because he 
could make the text more intelligible to.his au- 
ditors by an extemporary version. From this I 
inferred that the language of the translation was 
not the language of the isle of Col. 

He has no publick edifice for the exercise of 
his ministry, and can officiate to no greater 
number than a room can contain; and the 
room of a hut is not very large. This is all the 
opportunity of worship that is now granted to 
the inhabitants of the island, some of whom 
must travel thither perhaps ten miles. Two 
chapels were erected by their ancestors, of 
which I saw the skeletons, which now stand 
faithful witnesses of the triumph of reformation. 

The want of churches is not the only impe- 
diment to piety: there is likewise a want of mi- 
nisters. A parish often contains more islands 
than one, and each island can have the minister 
only in its own turn. At Raasay they had, I 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 209 

think, a right to service only every third Sun- 
day. All the provision made by the present 
ecclesiastical constitution for the inhabitants of 
about a hundred square miles is a prayer and 
sermon in a little room once in three weeks; 
and even this parsimonious distribution is at the 
mercy of the weather; and in those islands 
where the minister does not reside, it is impos- 
sible to tell how many weeks or months may 
pass without any publick exercise of religion. 

GRISSIPOL IN COL. 

After a short conversation with Mr. Maclean, 
we went on to Grissipol, a house and farm te- 
nanted by Mr. Macsweyn, where I saw more 
of the ancient life of a Highlander than I had 
yet found. Mrs. Macsweyn could speak no 
English, and had never seen any other places 
than the islands of Sky, Mull, and Col; but she 
was hospitable and goodhumoured, and spread 
her table with sufficient liberality. We found 
tea here, as in every other place; but our spoons 
were of horn. 

The house of Grissipol stands by a brook ve- 
ry clear and quick; which is, I suppose, one of 
the most copious streams in the island. This 



210 A JOURNEY TO THE 

place was the scene of an action, much celebra- 
ted in the traditional history of Col, but which 
probably no two relaters will tell alike. 

Some time, in the obscure ages, Macneil of 
Barra married the lady Maclean, who had the 
Isle of Col for her jointure. Whether Macneil 
detained Col, when the widow was dead, or 
whether she lived so long as to make her heirs 
impatient, is perhaps not now known. The 
younger son, called John Gerves, or John the 
Giant, a man of great strength, who was then 
in Ireland, either for safety, or for education, 
dreamed of recovering his inheritance; and get- 
ting some adventurers together, which in those 
unsettled times was not hard to do, invaded 
Col. He was driven away, but was not dis- 
couraged, and collecting new followers, in three 
years came again with fifty men. In his way 
he stopped at Artorinish in Morven, where his 
uncle was prisoner to Macleod, and was then 
with his enemies in a tent. Maclean took with 
him only one servant, whom he ordered to stay 
at he outside; and where he should see the tent 
pressed outwards to strike with his dirk; it being 
the intention of Maclean, as any man provoked 
him, to lay hands upon him, and push him back. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 211 

He entered the tent alone, with his Lochaber 
axe in his hand, and struck such terrour into the 
whole assembly, that they dismissed his uncle. 

When he landed at Col, he saw the sentinel 
who kept watch towards the sea, running off to 
Grissipol, to give Macneil, who was there with 
a hundred and twenty men, an account of the 
invasion. He told Macgill, one of his followers, 
that if he intercepted that dangerous intelli- 
gence, by catching the courier, he would give 
him certain lands in Mull. Upon this promise, 
Macgill pursued the messenger, and either kill- 
ed, or stopped him; and his posterity, till very 
lately, held the lands in Mull. 

The alarm being thus prevented, he came un- 
expectedly upon Macneil. Chiefs were in those 
days never wholly unprovided for an enemy. 
A fight ensued, in which one of their followers 
is said to have given an extraordinary proof of 
activity; by bounding backwards over the brook 
of Grissipol. Macneil being killed, and many 
of his clan destroyed, Maclean took possession 
of the island, which the Macneils attempted to 
conquer by another invasion, but were defeated 
and repulsed. 

Maclean in his turn, invaded the estate of the 



212 A JOURNEY TO THE 

Macneils, took the castle of Brecacig, and con- 
quered the isle of Barra, which he held for seven 
years, and then restored it to the heirs. 

CASTLE OF COL. 

From Grissipol, Mr. Maclean conducted us 
to his father's scat; a neat new house, erected 
near the old castle, I think, by the last proprie- 
tor. Here we were allowed to take our station, 
and lived very commodiously, while we w^aited 
for moderate weather and a fair wind, which 
w^e did not so soon obtain, but we had time to 
get some information of the present state of Col, 
partly by inquiry, and partly by occasional 
excursions. 

Col is computed to be thirteen miles in length, 
and three in breadth. Both the ends are the 
property of the Duke of Argyll, but the middle 
belongs to Maclean, who is called Col, as the 
only laird. 

Col is not prpperly rocky; it is rather one 
continued rock, of a surface much diversified 
with protuberances, and covered with a thin 
layer of earth, which is often broken, and dis- 
covers the stone. Such a soil is not for plants 
that strike deep roots; and perhaps in the whole 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 213 

island nothing has ever yet grown to the height 
of a table. The uncultivated parts are clothed 
with heath, among which industry has inter- 
spersed spots of grass and corn; but no attempt 
has yet been made to raise a tree. Young Col, 
who has a very laudable desire of improving his 
patrimony, purposes some time to plant an or- 
chard; which, if it be sheltered by a wall, may 
perhaps succeed. He has introduced the cul- 
1 lure of turnips, of which he has a field, where 
the whole work was performed by his own 
liand. His intention is to provide food for his 
cattle in the winter. This innovation was con- 
sidered by Mr. Macsweyn as the idle project 
of a young head, heated with English fancies; 
but he has now found that turnips will really 
grow, and that hungry sheep and cows will 
really eat them. 

By such acquisitions as these, the Hebrides 
may in time rise above their annual distress. 
Wherever heath will grow, there is reason to 
think something better may draw nourishment; 
and by trying the production of other places, 
plants will be found suitable to every soil. 

Col has many lochs, some of which have 
trouts and eels, and others have never yet been 



214 A JOURNEY lO THE 

stocked; another proof of the negligence of the 
islanders, who might take fish in the inland 
waters, when they cannot go to sea. 

Their quadrupeds are horses, cows, sheep, 
and goats. They have neither deer, hares nor 
rabbits. They have no vermin, except rats, 
which have been lately brought thither by sea, 
as to other places; and are free from serpents, 
frogs, and toads. 

The harvest in Col, and in Lewis, is ripe 
sooner than in Sky, and the winter in Col is 

never cold, but very tcHipcbUioUb. I know not 

that I ever heard the wind so loud in any other 
place; and Mr. Bos well observed, that its noise 
was all its own, for there were no trees to in- 
crease it.. 

Noise is not the worst effect of the tempests; 
for they have thrown the sand from the shore 
over a considerable part of the land; and it is 
said still to encroach and destroy more and 
more pasture; but I am not of opinion, that by 
any surveys or landmarks, its limits have been 
ever fixed, or its progression ascertained. If 
one man has confidence enough to say that it 
advances, nobody can bring any proof to sup- 
port him in denying it. The reason why it is 



WESTERN ISLANBS. 215 

not spread to a greater extent, seems to be, that 
the wind and rain come almost together, and 
that it is made close and heavy by the wet be- 
fore the storms can put it in motion. So thick 
is the bed, and so small the particles, that if a 
traveller should be caught by a sudden gust in 
dry weather, he would find it very difficult to 
escape with life. 

For natural curiosities, I was shown only two 
great masses of stone, which lie loose upon the 
ground; one on the top of a hill, and the other 
at a small distance from the bottom. They cer- 
tainly were never put into their present places 
by human strength or skill; and though an 
earthquake might have broken off the lower 
stone, and rolled it into the valley, no account 
can be given of the other, which lies on the 
hill, unless, which I forgot to examine, there 
be still near it some higher rock, from which 
it might be torn. All nations have a tradition, 
that their earliest ancestors were giants, and 
these stones arc said to have been thrown up 
and down by a giant and his mistress. There 
are so many more important things, of which 
human knowledge can give no account, that it 
may be forgiven us if we speculate no longer 
on two stones in CoL 



216 A JOURNEY TO THE 

This island is very populous. About nine 
and twenty years ago, the fencible men of Col 
were reckoned one hundred and forty, which is 
the sixth of eight hundred and forty; and pro- 
bably some contrived to be left out of the list. 
The minister told us, that a few years ago the 
inhabitants were eight hundred, between the 
ages of seven and of seventy. Round numbers 
are seldom exact. But in this case the authority 
is good, and the errour likely to be little. If to 
the eight hundred be added what the laws of 
computation require, they will be increased to 
at least a thousand; and if the dimensions of 
the country have been accurately related, 
every mile maintains more than twenty-five. 

This proportion of habitation is greater than 
the appearance of the country seems to admit; 
for wherever the eye wanders, it sees much 
w^aste and little cultivation. I am more inclined 
to extend the land, of which no measure has 
ever been taken, than to diminish the people, 
■who have been really numbered. Let it be sup- 
posed, that a computed mile contains a mile and 
a half, as was commonly found true in the men- 
suration of the English roads, and we shall then 
allot nearly twelve to a mile, which agrees much 
better with ocular observation. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 217 

Here, as in Sky and other islands, are the 
laird, the tacksmen, and the under tenants. 

Mr. Maclean, the laird, has very extensive 
possessions, being proprietor, not only of far 
the gTCiiier part of Col, but of the extensive 
Island of Rum, and a very considerable territo- 
ry in Mull. 

Rum is one of the larger islands, almost 
square, and therefore of great capacity in pro- 
portion to its sides. By the usual method of 
estimating computed extent, it may contain 
more than a hundred and twenty square miles. 

It originally belonged to Clanronald, and was 
purchased by Col; who, in some dispute about 
the bargain, made Clanronald prisoner, and 
kept him nine months in confinement. Its 
owner represents it as mountainous, rugged 
and barren. In the hills there are red deer. The 
horses are very small, but of a breed eminent 
for beauty. Col, not long ago, bought one of 
them from a tenant, who told him, that as he 
was of a shape uncommonly elegant, he could 
not sell him but at a high price; and that who- 
ever had him should pay a guinea and a half. 

There are said to be in Barra a race of horses 
yet smaller, of which the highest is not above 
thirty-six inches. 



218 A JOURNEY TO THE 

The rent of Rum is not great. Mr. Maclean 
declared, that he should be very rich if he could 
set his land at two-pence-halfpenny an acre. 
The inhabitants are fifty- eight families, who 
continued papists for some time after the laird 
became a protestant. Their adherence to their 
old religion was strengthened by the counte- 
nance of the laird's sister, a zealous Romanist, 
till one Sunday, as they were going to mass un- 
der the conduct of their patroness, Maclean met 
them on the way, gave one of them a blow on 
the head with a yellow stick, I suppose a cane, 
for which the Erse had no name, and drove 
them to the kirk, from w^hich they have never 
since departed. Since the use of this method of 
conversion, the inhabitants of Egg and Canna, 
who continue Papists, call the Protestantism of 
Rum, the religion of the Yellow Stick. 

The only Popish islands are Egg and Canna. 
Egg is the principal island of a parish, in which, 
though he has no congregation, the Protestant 
minister resides. I have heard of nothing curi- 
ous in it, but the cave in which a former gene- 
ration of the islanders were smothered by Mac- 
leod. 

If we had travelled widi more leisure, it had 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 219 

flot been fit to have neglected the Popish islands. 
Popery is favourable to ceremony; and among 
ignorant nations, ceremony is the only preserv- 
ative of tradition. Since Protestantism was ex- 
tended to the savage parts of Scotland, it has 
perhaps been one of the chief labours of the 
ministers to abolish stated observances, because 
they continued the remembrance of the former 
religion. We therefore who came to hear old 
traditions, and see antiquated manners, should 
probably have found them amongst the Papists. 

Canna, the other Popish island, belongs to 
Clanronaid. It is said not to comprise more 
than twelve miles of land, and yet maintains as 
many inhabitants as Rum. 

We were at Col under the protection of the 
young laird, without any of the distresses, which 
Mr. Pennant, in a fit of simple credulity, seems 
to think almost worthy of an elegy by Ossian. 
Wherever we roved, we were pleased to see the 
reverence with which his subjects regarded him. 
He did not endeavour to dazzle them by any 
magnificence of dress; his only distinction was a 
feather in his bonnet; but as soon as he appear- 
ed, they forsook their work, and clustered about 
him: he took them by the hand, and they seem- 



220 A J^OURxNTEY TO THE 

ed mutually delighted. He has the proper dis- 
position of a chieftain, and seems desirous t© 
continue the customs of his house. The bagpi- 
per played regularly, when dinner was served, 
whose person and dress made a good appear- 
ance; and he brought no disgrace upon the fa- 
mily of Rankin, which has long supplied the 
lairds of Col with hereditary musick. 

The tacksmen of Col seem to live with less 
dignity and convenience than those of Sky, 
where they had good houses, and tables not 
only plentiful, but delicate. In Col only tw^« 
houses pay the window tax; for only two have 
six windows, which, I suppose, are the laird's 
and Mr. Macsweyn's. 

The rents have, till within seven years, been 
paid in kind, but the tenants finding that cattle 
and corn varied in their price, desired for the 
future to give their landlord money; which, 
not having yet arrived at the philosophy of 
commerce, they consider as being every year 
of the same value. 

We were told of a particular mode of un- 
dertenure. The tacksman admits some of his 
inferiour neighbours to the cultivation of his 
grounds, on condition that performing all the 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 221 

work, and giving a third part of the seed, they 
shall keep a certain number of cows, sheep, and 
goats, and reap a third part of the harvest. 
Thus, by less than the tillage of two acres, they 
pay the rent of one. 

There are tenants below the rank of tacks- 
men, that have got smaller tenants under them; 
for in tvtry place, where money is not the ge- 
neral equivalent, .there must be some whose 
labour is immediately paid by daily food. 

A country that has no money, is by no means 
convenient for beggars, both because such 
countries are commonly poor, and because cha- 
rity requires some trouble and some thought. 
A penny is easily given upon the first impulse 
of compassion, or impatience of importunity; 
but few will deliberate!}' search their cupboards 
or their granaries, to find out something to give. 
A penny is likewise easily spent; but victuals, 
if they are unprepared, require houseroom, and 
fire, and utensils, which the beggar knows not 
where to find. 

Yet beggars there sometimes are, who wan-^ 
der from island to island. We had, in our pas- 
sage to Mull, the company of a woman and her 
child, who had exhausted the charity of Col. 

T 2 



222 A JOURNEY TO THE 

The arrival of a beggar on an island is account- 
ed a sinistrous event. Every body considers 
that he shall have the less for what he gives 
away. Their alms, I believe, is generally oat- 
meal. 

Near to Col is another island called Tireye, 
eminent for its fertility. Though it has but 
half the extent of Rum, it is so well peopled, 
that there have appeared, not long ago, nine 
hundred and fourteen at a funeral. The plenty 
of this island enticed beggars to it, who seemed 
so burdensome to the inhabitants, that a formal 
compact was drawn up, by which they obliged 
themselves to grant no more relief to casual 
wanderers, because they had among them an 
indigent woman of high birth, whom they con- 
sidered as entitled to all that they could spare. 
I have read the stipulation, which was indited 
with juridical formality, but was never made 
valid by regular subscription. 

If the inhabitants of Col have nothing 'to 
give, it is not that they are oppressed by their 
landlord; their leases seem to be very profitable. 
One farmer, who pays only seven pounds a year, 
has maintained seven daughters and three sons, 
of whom the eldest is educated at Aberdeen foi* 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 223 

the ministry; and now, at every vacation, opens 
a school in Col. 

Life is here, in some respects, improved be- 
yond the condition of some other islands. In 
Sky what is wanted can only be bought, as the 
arrival of some wandering pedlar may afford an 
opportunity; but in Col there is a standing 
shop, and in Mull there are two. A shop in the 
islands, as in other places of little frequentation, 
is a repository of every thing requisite for com- 
mon use. Mr. Boswell's journal was filled, and 
he bought some paper in Col. To a man that 
ranges the streets of London, where he is 
tempted to contrive wants for the pleasure of 
supplying them, a shop affords no image worthy 
of attention; but in an island, it turns the ba- 
lance of existence between good and evil. To 
live in perpetual want of httle things, is a state 
not indeed of torture, but of constant vexation. 
I have in Sky had some difficulty to find ink 
for a letter; and if a woman breaks her needle 
the work is at a stop. 

As it is, the islanders are obliged to content 
themselves whh succedaneous means for many 
common purposes. I have seen the chief man 
of a very wide district riding with a halter for 



224 A JOURNEY TO THE 

a bridle, and governing his hobb}^ with a wooden 
curb. 

The people of Col, however, do not want 
dexterity to supply some of their necessities. 
Several arts which make trades, and demand 
apprenticeships in great cities, are here the 
practices of daily economy. In every house 
candles are made, both moulded and dipped. 
Their wicks are small shreds of linen cloth. 
They all know how to extract from the Cuddy, 
oil for their lamps. They all tan skins, and 
make brogues. 

As we travelled through Sky, we saw many 
cottages, but they very frequently stood single 
on the naked ground. In Col, where the hills 
opened a place convenient for habitation, we 
found a petty village of which every hut had a 
little garden adjoining; thus they made an ap- 
pearance of social commerce and mutual offices, 
and of some attention to convenience and future 
supply. There is not in the Western Islands 
any collection of buildings that can make pre- 
tensions to be called a town, except in the Isle 
of Lewis, which I liave not seen. 

If Lewis is distinguished by a town. Col has 
also something peculiar. The young laird has 



WESTERN ISLANDS, 225 

attempted what no islander perhaps ever thought 
©n. He has begun a road capable of a wheels 
carriage. He has carried it about a mile, and 
will continue it by annual elongation from his 
house to the harbour. 

Of taxes here is no reason for complaining; 
they are paid by a very easy composition. The 
malt tax for Col is twenty shillings. Whisky is 
very plentiful: there are several stills in the 
island, and more is made than the inhabitants 
consume. 

The great business of insular policy is now 
to keep the people in their own country. As the 
world has been let in upon them, they have 
heard of happier climates, and less arbitrary 
government; and if they are disgusted, have 
emissaries among them ready to offer them land 
and houses, as a reward for deserting their 
chief and clanT Many have departed both from 
the main of Scotland, and from the islands; 
and all that go may be considered as subjects 
lost to the British crown; for a nation scattered 
in the boundless regions of America resembles 
rays diverging from a focus. All the rays re- 
main, but the heat is gone. Their power con- 
sisted in their concentration; when they are dis- 
perbcd they have no effect. 



226 A JOURNEY TO THE 

It may be thought that they are happier by 
the change; but they are not happy as a na- 
tion, for they are a nation no longer. As they 
contribute not to the prosperity of any commu- 
nity, they must want that security, that dignity, 
that happiness, whatever it be, which a pros- 
perous community throws back upon indivi- 
duals. 

The inhabitants of Col have not yet learned 
to be weary of their heath and rocks, but at- 
tend their agriculture and th(;ir dairies, without 
listening to American seducements. 

There are some however who think that this 
emigration has raised terrour disproportionate to 
its real evil; and that it is only a new mode of 
doing what was always done. The Highlands, 
they say, never maintained their natural inha- 
bitants; but the people, when they found them- 
selves too numerous, instead of extending cul- 
tivation, provided for themselves by a more 
compendious method, and sought better for- 
tune in other countries. They did not indeed 
go away in collective bodies, but withdrew in- 
visibly, a few at a time; but the whole number 
of fugitives was not less, and the difference be- 
tween other times and this is only the same as 
between evaporation and effusion. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 227 

This is plausible, but I am afraid it is not 
true. Those who went before, if they were not 
sensibly missed, as the argument supposes, 
must have gone either in less number, or in a 
manner less detrimental than at present, because 
formerly there was no complaint. Those who 
then left the country were generally the idle 
dependents on overburdened families, or men 
who had no property, and therefore carried 
away only themselves. In the present eagerness 
of emigration, families, and almost communi- 
ties, go away together. Those who were consi- 
dered as prosperous and wealthy sell their stock, 
and carry away the money. Once none went 
away but the useless and poor; in some parts 
there is now reason to fear, that none will stay 
but those who are too poor to remove them- 
selves, and too useless to be removed at the 
cost of others. 

Of antiquity there is not more knowledge in 
Col than in other places; but everywhere 
something may be gleaned. 

How ladies were portioned, when there was 
no money, it would be difficult for an English- 
man to guess. In 1649, Maclean of Dronart in 
Mull married his sister Fingala to Maclean of 



228 A JOURNEY TO THE 

Col, with a hundred and eighty kine; and sti- 
pulated, that if she became a widow, her join- 
ture should be three hundred and sixty. I sup- 
pose some proportionate tract of land was ap- 
propriated to their pasturage. 

The disposition to pompous and expensive 
funerals, which has at one time or other pre- 
vailed in most parts of the civilized world, is 
not yet suppressed in the islands, though some 
of the ancient solemnities are worn away, and 
singers are no longer hired to attend the pro- 
cession. Nineteen years ago, at the burial of 
the laird of Col, were killed thirty cows, and 
about fifty sheep. The number of the cows is 
positively told, and we must suppose other vic- 
tuals in like proportion. 

Mr. Maclean informed us of an odd game, of 
which he did not tell the original, but which 
may perhaps be used in other places, where the 
reason of it is not yet forgot. At newyear's 
eve, in the hall or castle of the laird, where, at 
festal seasons, there may be supposed a very 
numerous company, one man dresses himself 
in a cow's hide, upon which other men bea^ 
with sticks. He runs with all this noise round 
the house, \yhich all the company quits in a 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 229 

counterfeited fright; the door is then shut. At 
newy ear's eve there is no great pleasure to be 
had out of doors in the Hebrides. They are 
sure soon to recover from their terror enough 
to solicit for read mission; which, for the honour 
of poetry, is not to be obtained but by repeat- 
ing a verse, with which those that are knowing 
and provident take care to be furnished. 

Very near the house of Maclean stands the 
castle of Col, which was the mansion of the 
laird, till the house was built. It is built upon 
a rock, as Mr. Boswell remarked, that it might 
not be mined. It is very strong, and having 
been not long uninhabited, is yet in repair. On 
the wall was, not long ago, a stone with an in- 
scription, importing, that *' if any man of the 
" clan of Maclonich shall appear before this 
" castle, though he come at midnight, with a 
" man's head in his hand, he shall there find 
" safety and protection against all but the 
" king." 

This is an old Highland treaty made upon a 
very memorable occasion. Maclean, the son of 
John Gerves, who recovered Col, and conquer- 
ed Barra, had obtained, it is said, from James 
the Second, a grant of the lands of Lochiel, for- 

u 



230 A JOURNEY TO THE 

feited, I suppose, by some offence against the 
state. 

Forfeited estates were not in those days qui- 
etly resigned; Maclean, therefore, went with an 
armed force to seize his new possessions, and, 
I know not for what reason, took his wife with 
him. The Camerons rose in defence of their 
chief, and a battle was fought at the head of 
Loch Ness, near the place where Fort Augus- 
tus now stands, in which Lochiel obtained the 
victory, and iMaclean, with his followers, was 
defeated and destroyed. 

The lady fell into the hands of the conquer- 
ors, and being found pregnant, was placed in 
the custody of Maclonich, one of a tribe or fa- 
mily branched from Cameron, with orders, if 
she brought a boy, to destroy him, if a girl, to 
spare her. 

Maclonich's wife, who was with child like- 
wise, had a girl about the same time at which 
lady Maclean brought a boy; and Maclonich, 
with more generosity to his captive, than fide- 
lity to his trust, contrived that the children 
should be changed. 

Maclean being thus preserved from death, in 
time recovered his original patrimony; and in 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 23 1 

gratitude to his friend, made his castle a place 
of refuge to any of the clan that should think 
himself in danger; and as a proof of reciprocal 
confidence, Maclean took upon himself and his 
posterity the care of educating the heir of Ma- 
elonich. 

This story, like all other traditions of the 
Highlands, is variously related; but though 
some circumstances are uncertain, the princi- 
pal fact is true. Maclean undoubtedly owed his 
preservation to Maclonich; for the treaty be- 
tween the two families has been strictly ob- 
served: it did not sink into disuse and oblivion, 
but continued in its full force while the chief- 
tains retained their power. I have read a demand 
of protection, made not more than thirty- seven 
years ago, for one of the Maclonichs, named 
Ewen Cameron, who had been accessory to the 
death of Macmartin, and had been banished 
by Lochiel, his lord, for a certain term; at the 
expiration of which he returned married from 
France; but the Macmartins, not satisfied with 
the punishment, when he attempted to settle, still 
threatened him with vengeance. He therefore 
asked, and obtained sheher in the isle of Col. 

The power of protection subsists no longer; 



232 A JOURNEY TO THE 

but what the law permits is yet continued, and 
Maclean of Col now educates the heir of 
Maclonich. 

There still remains in the islands, though it 
is passing fast av/ay, the custom of fosterage. 
A laird, a man of wealth and eminence, sends 
his child, either male or female, to a tacksman, 
or tenant, to be fostered. It is not always his 
own tenant, but some distant friend that obtains 
this honour; for an honour such a trust is very 
reasonably thought. The terms of fosterage 
seem to vary in different islands. In Mull the 
father sends with his child a certain number of 
cows, to which the same number is added by 
the fosterer. The father appropriates a propor- 
tionable extent of ground, without rent, for their 
pasturage. If every cow brings a calf, half be- 
longs to the fosterer, and half to the child; 
but if there be only one calf between two 
cows, it is the child's, and when the child re- 
turns to the parents, it is accompanied by all 
the cows given, both by the father and by the 
fosterer, with half of the increase of the stock 
by propagation. These beasts are considered 
as a portion, and called Macalive cattle, of 
which the father has the produce, but is sup- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 233 

posed not to have the full property, but to owe 
the same number to the child, as a portion to 
the daughter, or a stock for the son. 

Children continue with the fosterer perhaps 
six years, and cannot, where this is the practice, 
be considered as burdensome. The fosterer, if 
he gives four cows, receives likewise four, and 
has while the child continues with him, grass 
for eight without rent, with half the calves, and 
all the milk, for which he pays only four cows 
when he dismisses his Dalt, for that is the name 
for a foster child. 

Fosterage is, I believe, sometimes performed 
upon more liberal terms. Our friend the young 
laird of Col, was fostered by Macsweyn of 
Grissipol. Macsweyn then lived a tenant to Sir 
James Macdonald in the isle of Sky; and there- 
fore Col, whether he sent him cattle or not, 
could grant him no land. The dalt, however, 
at'his return, brought back a considerable num- 
ber of macalive cattle; and of the friendship so 
formed there have been good effects. When 
Macdonald raised his rents, Macsweyn was, 
like other tenants, discontented, and, resigning 
his farm, removed from Sky to Col, and was 
established at Grissipol. 

U 2 



234 A JOURNEY TO THE 

These observations we made by favour of 
the contrary wind that drove us to Col, an 
island not often visited; for there is not much 
to amuse curiosity, or to attract avarice. 

The ground has been hitherto, I believe, used 
chiefly for pasturage. In a district, such as the 
eye can command, there is a general herdsman, 
who knows all the cattle of the neighbourhood, 
and whose station is upon a hill, from which he 
surveys the lower grounds; and if one man's 
cattle invade another's grass, drives them back 
to their own borders. But other means of pro- 
fit begin to be found; kelp is gathered and 
burnt, and sloops are loaded with the concreted 
ashes. Cultivation is likely to be improved by 
the skill and encouragement of the present heir, 
and the inhabitants of those obscure valleys will 
partake of the general progress of life. 

The rents of the parts which belong to the 
Duke of Argyll have been raised from fifty- 
five to one hundred and five pounds, whether 
from the land or the sea I cannot tell. The 
bounties of the sea have lately been so great, 
that a flu m in South Uist has risen in ten years 
from a rent of thirty pounds to one hundred 
and eighty. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 235 

He who lives in Col, and finds himself con- 
demned to solitary meals, and incommunicable 
reflection, will find the usefulness of that middle 
order of tacksmen, which some who applaud 
their own wisdom are wishing to destroy. With- 
out intelligence man is not social, he is only 
gregarious; and little intelligence will there be, 
where all are constrained to daily labour, and 
every mind must wait upon the hand. 

After having listened for some days to the 
tempest, and wandered about the island till our 
curiosity w^as satisfied, we began to think about 
our departure. To leave Col in October was 
not very easy. We however found a sloop 
which lay on the coast to carry kelp; and for 
a price which we thought levied upon our 
necessities, the master agreed to carry us to 
Mull, whence we might readily pass back to 
Scotland. 

MULL. 
As we were to catch the first favourable breath, 
we spent the night not very elegantly nor plea- 
santly in the vessel, and were landed next day 
at Tobor Morar, a port in Mull, which appears 
to an unexperienced eye formed for the security 



236 A JOURNEY TO THE 

of ships; for its mouth is closed by a small island, 
which admits them through narrow channels in- 
to a bason sufficiently capacious. They are m- 
deed safe from the sea, but there is a hollow 
between the mountains, through which the wind 
issues from the land with very mischievous 
violence. 

There was no danger while we were there, 
and we found several other vessels at anchor; 
so that the port had a very commercial appear- 
ance. , 

The young laird of Col, who had determin- 
ed not to let us lose his company while there 
was any difficulty remaining, came over with 
us. His influence soon appeared; for he procur- 
ed us horses, and conducted us to the house of 
Doctor Maclean, where we found very kind 
entertainment, and very pleasing conversation. 
Miss Maclean who was born, and had been bred 
at Glasgow, having removed with her father to 
Mull, added to other qualifications, a great 
knowledge of the Erse language, which she 
had not learned in her childhood, but gained 
by study, and was the only interpreter of Erse 
poetry that I could ever find. 

The Isle of Mull is perhaps in extent the 
third of the Hebrides. It is not broken by wa- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 237 

ters, nor shot into promontories, but is a solid 
and compact mass, of breadth nearly equal to 
its length. Of the dimensions of the larger 
islands, there is no knowledge approaching to 
exactness. I am willing to estimate it as con- 
taining about three hundred square miles. 

Mull had suffered like Sky by the black 
winter of seventy-one, in which, contrary to all 
experience, a continued frost detained the snow 
eight weeks upon the ground. Against a cala- 
mity never known, no provision had been made, 
and the people could only pine in helpless mi- 
sery. One tenant was mentioned, whose cattle 
perished to the value of three hundred pounds; 
a loss which probably more than the life of 
man is necessary to repair. In countries like 
these, the descriptions of famine become intelli- 
gible. Where by vigorous and artful cultiva- 
tion of a soil naturally fertile, there is common- 
ly a superfluous growth both of grain and grass; 
where the fields are crowded with cattle; and 
where every hand is able to attract wealth from 
a distance, by making something that promotes 
ease, or gratifies vanity, a dear year produces 
only a comparative want, which is rather seen 
than felt, and which terminates commonly in 



238 A JOURNEY TO TlIE 

no worse effect, than ihiit of condemning the 
lower orders of the community to sacrilice a 
little luxury to convenience, or at most a little 
convenience to necessit3^ 

But where the climate is unkind, and the 
ground penurious, so that the most fruitful 
years produce only enough to maintain them- 
selves; where life unimproved, and unadorned, 
fades into something little more than naked ex- 
istence, and every one is busy for himself, with- 
out any arts by which the pleasure of others 
may be increased; if to the daily burden of dis- 
tress any additional weight be added, nothings 
remains but to despair and die. In Mull the 
disappointment of a harvest, or a murrain 
among the cattle, cuts off the regular provision; 
and they who have no manufactures can pur- 
chase no part of the superfluities of other coun- 
tries. The consequence of a bad season is here 
not scarcity, but emptiness; and they whose 
plenty was barely a supply of natural and pre- 
sent need, when that slender stock fails, must 
perish with hunger. * 

All travel has its advantages. If the passen- 
ger visits better countries, he may learn to im« 
prove his own; and if fortune carries him to 
worse, he may learn to enjoy it. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 239 

Mr. Boswell's curiosity strongly impelled 
him to survey lona, or Icolmkill, which was to 
the early ages the great school of Theology, 
and is supposed to have been the place of se- 
pulture for the ancient kings. I, though less 
eager, did not oppose him. 

That we might perform this expedition, it 
was necessary to traverse a great part of iVIull. 
We passed a day at Dr. Maclean's, and could 
have been well contented to stay longer. But 
Col provided us horses, and we pursued our 
journey. This was a day of inconvenience, for 
the country is very rough, and my horse was 
but little. We travelled many hours through a 
tract, black and barren, in which, however, 
there were the reliques of humanity, for we 
found a ruined chapel in our way. 

It is natural, in traversing this gloom of de- 
solation, to inquire, whether something may 
not be done to give nature a more cheerful 
face, and whether those hills and muirs that af- 
ford heath cannot, with a little care and labour, 
bear something better? The first thought that 
occurs is to cover them with trees, for that in 
many of these naked regions trees will grow, 
is evident, because stumps and roots are yet 



^40 A JOURNEY TO THE 

remaining; and the speculatist hastily proceeds 
to censure that negligence and laziness that has 
omitted for so long a time so easy an improve- 
ment. 

To drop seeds into the ground, and attend 
their growth, requires little labour, and no skill. 
He who remembers that all the woods, by which 
the wants ^ f man have been supplied from the 
deluge till now, were self-sown, will not easily 
be persuaded to think all the art and prepara- 
» tion necessary, which the Georgick writers pre- 
scribe to planters. Trees certainly have covered 
the earth with very little culture. They wave 
their tops among the rocks of Norway, and 
might thrive as well in the Highlands and He- 
brides. 

But there is a frightful interval between the 
seed and timber. He that calculates the growth 
of trees, has the unwelcome remembrance of 
the shortness of life driven, hard upon him. He 
knows that he is doing what will never benefit 
himself; and when he rejoices to see the stem 
rise, is disposed to repine that another shall cut 
it down. 

Plantation is naturally the employment of a 
mind unburdened with care, and vacant to fu- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. :241 

turity, saturated with present good, and at lei- 
sure to derive gratification from the prospect of 
posterity. He that pines with hunger, is in lit- 
tle care how others shall be fed. The poor man 
is seldom studious to make his grandson rich. 
It may be soon discovered, why in a place, 
which hardly supplies the cravings of necessity, 
there has been little attention to the delights of 
fancy, and why distant convenience is unre- 
garded, where the thoughts are turned with in* 
cessant solicitude upon every possibility of im- 
mediate advantage. 

Neither is it quite so easy to raise large 
woods, as may be conceived. Trees intended 
to produce timber must be sown where they 
are to grow; and ground sown with trees must 
be kept useless for a long time, enclosed at an 
expense from which many will be discouraged 
by the remoteness of the profit, and watched 
with that attention, which, in places where it is 
most needed, will neither be given nor bought* 
That it cannot be ploughed is evident; and if 
cattle be suffered to graze upon it, they will 
devour the plants as fast as they rise. Even in 
coarser countries, where herds and flocks are 

not fed, not only the deer and the wild goats 

X 



242 A JOURNEY TO THE 

will browse upon them, but the hare and rabbit 
will nibble them. It is therefore reasonable to 
believe, what I do not remember any naturalist 
to have remarked, that there was a time when 
the world was very thinly inhabited by beasts, 
as well as men, and that the woods had leisure 
to rise high before animals had bred numbers 
sufficient to intercept them. 

Sir James Macdonald, in part of the wastes 
of his territory, set or sowed trees, to the num- 
ber, as I have been told, of several millions, 
expecting, doubtless, that they would grow up 
into future navies and cities; but for want of 
enclosure, and of that care which is always ne- 
cessary, and will hardly ever be taken, all his 
cost and labour have been lost, and the ground 
is likely to continue an useless heath. 

Having not any experience of a journey in 
Mull, we had no doubt of reaching the sea 
by daylight, and therefore had not left Dr. 
Maclean's very early. We travelled diligently 
enough, but found the country, for road there 
was none, very difficult to pass. We were al- 
ways struggling with some obstruction or other, 
and our vexation was not balanced by any gra- 
tification of the eye or mind. We were nov^ 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 243 

long enough acquainted with hills and heath to 
have lost the emotion that they once raised, 
whether pleasing or painful, and had our mind 
employed onl^ on our own fatigue. We were 
however sure, under Col's protection, of es- 
caping all real evils. There was no house in 
Mull to which he could not introduce us. He 
had intended to lodge us, for that night, with 
a gentleman that lived upon the coast, but dis- 
covered on the way, that he then lay in bed 
without hope of life. 

We resolved not to embarrass a family in a 
time of so much sorrow, if any other expedient 
could be found; and as the island of Ulva was 
over against us, it was determined that we 
should pass the strait and have recourse to the 
laird, who, like the other gentlemen of the 
islands, was known to Col, We expected to 
find a ferry boat, but when at last we came to 
the water, the boat was gone. 

We were now again at a stop. It was the 
sixteenth of October, a time when it is not con- 
venient to sleep in the Hebrides without a co- 
ver, and there was no house within our reach^ 

> ■ 

but that which we had already declined. 



244 A JOURNEY TO THE 

ULVA. 

While we stood deliberating, we were hap- 
pily espied from an Irish ship, that lay at anchor 
in the strait. The master saw that we wanted a 
passage, and with great civility sent us his 
boat, which quickly conveyed us to Ulva, 
where we were very liberally entertained by 
Mr. Macquarry. 

To Ulva we came in the dark, and left it be- 
fore noon the next day. A very exact descrip- 
tion therefore will not be expected. We were 
told that it is an island of no great extent, 
rough and barren, inhabited by the Macquar- 
ry s; a clan not powerful nor numerous, but of 
antiquity, which most other families are con- 
tent to reverence. The name is supposed to be 
a depravation of some other, for the Erse lan- 
guage does not afford it any etymology. Mac- 
quarry is proprietor both of Ulva and some 
adjacent islands, among which is Staffa, so 
lately raised to renown by Mr. Banks. 

When the islands were reproached with their 
ignorance or insensibility of the wonders of 
Staffa, they had not much to reply. They had 
indeed considered it little, because they had 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 245 

always seen it; and none but philosophers, nor 
they always, are struck with wonder, otherwise 
than by novelty. How would it surprize an un- 
enlightened ploughman to hear a company of 
sober men inquiring by what power the hand 
tosses a stone, or why the stone, when it is 
tossed, falls to the ground! 

Of the ancestors of Macquarry, who thus 
lies hid in his unfrequented island, I have found 
memorials in all places where they could be ex- 
pected. 

Inquiring after the relicks of former man- 
ners, I found that in Ulva, and I think nowhere 
else, is continued the payment of the mercheta 
mulierum^ a fine in old times due to the laird at 
the marriage of a virgin. The original of this 
claim, as of our tenure of Borough English, is 
variously delivered. It is pleasant to find an- 
cient customs in old families. This payment, 
like others, was, for want of money, made an- 
ciently in the produce of the land. Macquarry 
was used to demand a sheep, for v/hich he now 
takes a crown, by that inattention to the un- 
certain proportion between the value and the 
denomination of money, which has brought 
much disorder into Europe. A sheep has al- 



246 A JOURNEY TO THE 

ways the same power of supplying human 
wants, but a crown will bring at one time more, 
at another less. 

Ulva was not neglected by the piety of an- 
cient times; it has still to show what was once 
3, church. 

INCH KENNETH. 

In the morning we went again into the boat, 
«nd were landed on Inch Kenneth, an island 
about a mile long, and perhaps half a mile 
broad, remarkable for pleasantness and fertility. 
It is-^erdant and grassy, and fit both for pasture 
tmd tillage; but it has no trees. Its only inha- 
bitants were Sir Allan Maclean and two young 
Jladies, his daughters, with their servants. 

Romance does not often exhibit a scene that 
strikes the imagination more than this little de- 
sert in these depths of western obscurity, occu- 
pied not by a gross herdsman, or amphibious 
fisherman, but by a gentleman and two ladies, 
of high birth, polished manners, and elegant 
conversation, who, in a habitation raised not 
very far above the ground, but furnished with 
unexpected neatness and convenience, practis- 
ed all the kindness of hospitality and refinement 
ef courtesy. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 24? 

Sir Allan is the chieftain of the great clan of 
Maclean, which is said to claim the second 
place among the Highland families, yielding 
only to Mucdonald. Though by the miscon- 
duct of his ancestors, most of the extensive ter- 
ritory, which would have descended to him, 
has been alienated, he still retains much of the 
dignity and authority of his birth. When sol- 
diers were lately wanting for the American war 
application was made to Sir Allan, and he 
nominated a hundred men for the service, who 
obeyed the summons, and bore arms under his 
command. 

He had then for some time resided with the 
young ladies in Inch Kenneth, where he lives 
not only with plenty, but with elegance, having 
conveyed to his cottage a collection of books, 
and what else is necessary to make his hours 
pleasant. 

When we landed, we were met by Sir Allan 
and the ladies, accompanied by Miss Macquar- 
ry, who had passed some time with them, and 
now returned to Ulva with her father. 

We all walked together to the mansion, where 
we found one cottage for Sir Allan, and I think 
two more for the domesticks and the offices. 



248 A JOURNEY TO THE 

We entered, and wanted little that palaces af- 
ford. Our room was neatly floored, and well 
lighted; and our dinner which was dressed in one 
of the other huts, was plentiful and delicate. 

In the afternoon Sir Allan reminded us, that 
the day was Sunday, which he never suffered to 
pass w ithout some religious distinction, and in- 
vited us to partake in his acts of domestick wor- 
ship; which 1 hope neither Mr. Bosweli nor 
myself will be suspected of a disposition to re- 
fuse. The elder of the ladies read the English 
service. 

Inch Kenneth was once a seminary of eccle* 
siasticks, subordinate, I suppose, to IcolmkilL 
Sir Allan had a mind to trace the foundation of 
the college, but neither I nor Mr. Bosweli, who 
bends a keener eye on vacancy^ were able to per- 
ceive them. 

Our attention, however, was sufficiently en- 
gaged by a venerable chapel, which stands yet 
entire, except that the roof is gone. It is about 
sixty feet in length, and thirty in breadth. On 
one side of the altar is a bas relief of the blessed 
Virgin, and by it lies a little bell; which, though 
cracked, and without a clapper, has remained 
there for ages, guarded only by the venerable- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 241^ 

ness of the place. The ground round the chapel 
is covered with gravestones of chiefs and ladies; 
and still continues to be a place of sepulture. 

Inch Kenneth is a proper prelude to Icoltn- 
kill. It was not without some mournful emo- 
tion that we contemplated the ruins of religious 
structures, and the monuments of the dead. 

On the next day we took a more distinct view 
©f the place, and went with a boat to see oys- 
ters in the bed, out of which the boatmen forced 
up as many as were wanted. Even Inch Ken- 
neth has a subordinate island, named Sandiland, 
I suppose, in contempt, where we landed, and 
found a rock, with the surface of perhaps four 
acres, of which one is naked stone, another 
spread with sand and shells, some of which I 
picked up for their glossy beauty, and two co- 
vered with a little earth and grass, on Avhich Sir 
Allan has a few sheep. I doubt not but- when 
there was a college at Inch Kenneth, there was 
a hermitage upon Sandiland. 

Having wandered over those extensive plains, 
we committed ourselves again to the winds and 
waters; and after a voyage of about ten mi- 
nutes, in which we met with nothing very ob- 
servable, were again safe upon dry ground. 



250 A JOURNEY TO THE 

We told Sir Allan our desire of visiting 
Icolmkill, and entreated him to give us his pro- 
tection and his company. He thought proper to 
hesitate a little; but the ladies hinted, that as 
they knew he would not finally refuse, he would 
do better if he preserved the grace of ready 
compliance. He took their advice, and promis- 
ed to carry us on the morrow in his boat. 

We passed the remaining part of the day in 
such amusements as were in our power. Sir 

Allan related the American campaign, and at 

evening one of the ladies played on her harpsi- 
chord, while Col and Mr. Boswell danced a 
Scottish reel with the other. 

We could have been easily persuaded to a 
longer stay upon Inch Kenneth, but life will 
not all be passed in delight. The session at 
Edinburgh was approaching, from which Mr. 
Boswell could not be absent. 

In the morning our boat was ready: it was 
high and strong. Sir Allan victualled it for the 
day, and provided able rowers. We now parted 
from the young laird of Col, who had treated 
us with so much kindness, and concluded his 
favours by consigning us to Sir Allan; Here 
we had the last embrace of this amiable mail; 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 2Sl 

who, while these pages were preparing to attest 
his virtues, perished in the passage between 
Ulva and Inch Kenneth. 

Sir Allan, to whom the whole region was 
well known, told us of a very remarkable cave, 
to which he would show us the way. We had 
been disappointed already by one cave, and 
were not much elevated by the expectation of 
another. 

It was yet better to see it, and we stopped at 
some rocks on the coast of Mull. The mouth 
is fortified by vast fragments of stone, over 
which we made our way, neither very nimbly 
nor very securely. The place, however, well 
repaid our trouble. The bottom, as far as the 
flood rushes in, was encumbered with large 
pebbles, but as we advanced was spread over 
with smooth sand. The breadth is about forty- 
five feet: the roof rises in an arch, almost regu- 
lar, to a height which we could not measure; 
but I think it about thirty feet. 

This part of our curiosity was nearly frustrat- 
ed; for though w^e WTnt to see a cave, and 
knew that caves are dark, we forgot to carry 
tapers, and did not discover our omission till we 
were awakened by our wants. Sir Allan then 



252 A JOURNEY TO THE 

sent one of the boatmen into the country, who 
soon returned with one little candle. We were 
thus enabled to go forward, but could not ven- 
ture far. Having passed inward from the sea 
to a great depth, we found on the right hand a 
narrow passage, perhaps not more than six feet 
wide, obstructed by great stones, over which 
we climbed and came into a second cave, in 
breadth twenty-five feet. The air in this apart- 
ment was very warm, but not oppressive, nor 
loaded with vapours. Our light shewed no to- 
kens of a feculent or corrupted atmosphere. 
Here was a square stone, called, as we are told,. 
Fingal's Table. 

If we had been provided with torches, we 
should have proceeded in our search, though 
we had already gone as far as any former adven- 
turer, except some who are reported never to 
have returned; and, measuring our way back, 
we found it more than a hundred and sixty 
yards, the eleventh part of a mile. 

Our measures were not critically exact, hav- 
ing been made with a walking pole, such as it 
is convenient to carry in these rocky countries^ 
of which ] guessed the length by standing 
against it. In this there could be no great er- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 253 

rour, nor do I much doubt but the Highlander, 
whom we employed, reported the number right. 
More nicety however is better, and no man 
should travel unprovided with mstruments for 
taking heights and distances. 

There is yet another cause of errour not al- 
ways easily surmounted, though more danger- 
ous to the veracity of itinerary narratives, than 
imperfect mensuration. An observer deeply 
impressed by any remarkable spectacle does not 
suppose, that the traces will soon vanish from 
his mind, and having commonly no great con- 
venience for writing, defers the description to a 
time of more leisure, and better accommodation. 

He who has not made the experiment, or 
who is not accustomed to require rigorous ac- 
curacy from himself, will scarcely believe how 
much a few hours take from certainty of 
knowledge, and distinctness of imagery; how 
the succession of objects will be broken, how 
separate parts will be confused, and how many 
particular features and discriminations will be 
compressed and conglobated into one gross and 
general idea. 

To this dilatory notation must be imputed 

the false relations of travellers, where there is 

t 



254 A JOURNEY TO THE 

no imaginable motive to deceive. They trust- 
ed to memory what cannot be trusted safely 
but to the eye, and told by guess what a few 
hours before they had known with certainty. 
Thus it was that Wheeler and Spen described 
with irreconcilable contrariety, things which 
they surveyed together, and which both un- 
doubtedly designed to show as they saw them. 

When we had satisfied our curiosity in the 
cave, so far as our penury of light permitted us, 
we clambered again to our boat, and proceeded 
along the coast of Mull to a headland, called 
Atun, remarkable for the columnar form of the 
rocks, which rise in a series of pilasters, with 
a degree of regularity, which Sir Allan thinks 
not less worthy of curiosity than the shore of 
StafFa. 

Not long after we came to another range of 
black rocks, which had the appearance of bro- 
ken pilasters, set one behind another to a great 
depth. This place was chosen by Sir Allan for 
our dinner. We were easily accommodated 
with seats, for the stones were of all heights, 
and refreshed ourselves and our boatmen, who 
could have no other rest till we were at Icolm- 
kill. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 255 

The evening was now approaching, and we 
were yet at a considerable distance from the 
end of our expedition. We could therefore 
stop no more to make remarks in the way, but 
set forward with some degree of eagerness. The 
day soon failed us, and the moon presented a 
very solemn and pleasing scene. The sky was 
clear, so that the eye commanded a wide circle: 
the sea was neither still nor turbulent: the wind 
neither silent nor loud. We were never far 
from one coast or another, on which, if the 
weather had become violent, we could have 
found shelter, and therefore contemplated at 
ease the region through which we glided in the 
tranquillity of the night, and saw now a rock and 
now an island grow gradually conspicuous and 
gradually obscure. I committed the fault which 
I have been just censuring, in neglecting, as wc 
passed, to note the series of this placid navi- 
gation. 

We were very near an island, called Nun's 
Island, perhaps from an ancient convent. Here 
is said to have been dug the stone which was 
used in the buildings of Icolmkill. Whether it 
is now inhabited we could not stay to inquire. 

At last we came to Icolmkill, but found no 



-256 A JOURNEY TO THB 

convenience for landing. Our boat could not 
be forced very near the dry ground, and our 
Highlanders carried us over the water. 

We were now treading that illustrious island 
which was once the luminary of the Caledonian 
regions, whence savage clans and roving barba- 
rians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the 
blessings of religion. To abstract the mind 
from all local emotion would be impossible, if 
it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it 
vi^ere possible. Whatever withdraws us from 
the power of our senses; whatever makes the 
past, the distant, or the future predominate over 
the present, advances us in the dignity of think- 
ing beings. Far from me and from my friends, 
be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us 
indiiferent and unmoved over any ground which 
has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or vir- 
tue. That man is little to be envied, whose 
patriotism would not gain force upon the plain 
of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow 
warmer among the ruins of lona. 

We came too late to visit monuments: some 
care w-as necessary for ourselves. Whatever 
was in the island, Sir Allan could demand, for 
&e inhabitants were Macleans; but having lit- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 257 

tie they could not give us much. He went to 
the head man of the island, whom Fame, but 
Fame delights in amplifying, represents as worth 
no less than fifty pounds. He was perhaps proud 
enough of his guests, but ill prepared for our 
entertainment; however, he soon produced 
more provision ihan men not luxurious require. 
Our lodging was next to be provided. We 
found a barn well stocked with hay, and made 
our beds as soft as we could. 

In the morning we rose and surveyed the 
place. The churches of the two convents are 
both standing, though unroofed. They were 
built of unhewn stone, but solid, and not inele- 
gant. 1 brought avv'ay rude measures of the 
buildings, such as I cannot much trust myself, 
inaccurately taken, and obscurely noted. Mr. 
Pennant's delineations, which are doubtless ex- 
act, have made my unskilful description less 
necessary. 

The episcopal church consists of two parts, 

separated by the belfry, and built at different 

times. The original church had, like others, 

the altar at one end, and tower at the other; 

but as it grew too small, another building of 

equal dimension was added, and the tower then 

was necessarily in the middle. 

Y s 



S58 A JOURNEY TO THE 

That these edifices are of different ages seemfr 
evident. The arch of the first church is Roman, 
being part of a circle; that of the additional 
building is pointed, and therefore Gothick, or 
Saracenical; the tower is firm, and wants only 
to be floored and covered. 

Of the chambers or cells belonging to the 
monks, there are some walls remaining, but no- 
thing approaching to a complete apartment. 

The bottom of the church is so encumbered 
with mud and rubbish, that we could make no 
discoveries of curious inscriptions, and what 
there are have been already published. The 
place is said to be known where the black 
stones lie concealed, on which the old Highland 
chiefs, when they made contracts and alliances, 
used to take the oath, which was considered a& 
more sacred than any other obligation, and 
which coiiid not be violated without the black- 
est infamy. In those days of violence and ra- 
pine, it was of great importance to impress 
upon savage minds the sanctity of an oath, by 
some particular and extraordinary circumstan- 
ces. They would not have recourse to the black 
stones, upon small or common occasions, and 
when they had established their faith by this 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 259 

tremendous sanction, inconstancy and treachery 
were no longer feared. 

The chapel of the nunnery is now used by 
the inhabitants as a kind of general cow house, 
and the bottom is consequently too miry for 
examination. Some of the stones which cover- 
ed the later abbesses have inscriptions, which 
might yet be read, if the chapel were cleansed. 
The roof of this, as of all the other buildings, 
is totally destroyed, not only because timber 
quickly decays when it is neglected, but be- 
cause in an island utterly destitute of wood, it 
was wanted for use, and was consequently the 
first plunder of needy rapacity. 

I'he chancel of the nuns' chapel is covered 
with an arch of stone, to which time has done 
no injury; and a small apartment communicat- 
ing with the choir, on the north side, like the 
chapter house in cathedrals, roofed with stone 
in the same manner, is likewise entire. 

In one of the churches was a marble altar, 
which the superstition of the inhabitants has 
destroyed. Their opinion was, that a fragment 
of this stone was a defence against shipwrecks, 
fire, and miscarriages. In one corner of tlie 
church the bason for holy water is yet unbroken. 



260 A journp:y to the 

The cemetery c f the nunnery was, till very 
lately, regarded with such reverence, that only 
women were buried in it. These relicks of 
veneration always produce some mournful plea- 
sure. I could have forgiven a great injury more 
easily than the violation of this imaginary 
sanctity. 

South of the chapel stand the walls of a large 
room, which was probably the hall, or refec- 
tory of the nunnery. This apartment is capable 
of repair. Of the rest of the convent there are 
only fragments. 

Besides the two principal churches, there 
are, I think, five chapels yet standing, and three 
more remembered. There are also crosses, of 
which two bear the names of St. John and St. 
Matthew. 

A large space of ground about these conse- 
crated edifices is covered with grave stones, 
few of which have any inscription. He that 
surveys it, attended by an insular antiquary, 
may be told where the kings of many nations 
are buried, and if he loves to sooth his imagi- 
nation with the thoughts that naturally rise in 
places where the great and the povveriiil lie 
mingled with the dust, let him listen in sub- 



WESTERN ISLANDS. ^61 

missive silence; for if he asks any questions, 
his delight is at an end. 

lona has long enjoyed, without any very 
credible attestation, the honour of being re- 
puted the cemetery of the Scottish kings. It is 
not unlikely, that, when the opinion of local 
sanctity was prevalent, the chieftains of the 
isles, and perhaps some of the Norwegian or 
Irish princes, were reposited in this venerable 
enclosure. But by whom the subterraneous 
vaults are peopled is now utterly unknown. 
The graves are very numerous, and some of 
them undoubtedly contain the remains of men, 
who did not expect to be so soon forgotten. 

Not far from this awful ground, may be 
traced the garden of the monastery: the fish- 
ponds are yet discernible, and the aqueduct, 
which supplied them, is still in use. 

There remains a broken building, which is 
called the bishop's house, I know not by what 
authority. It was once the residence of some 
man above the common rank, for it has two 
stories and a chimney. We were shown a chim- 
ney at the other end, which was only a niche, 
without perforation, but so much does antiqua- 
mn credulity, pr patriotick vanity prevail, that 



262 A JOURNEY TO THE 

it was not much more safe to trust the eye of 
our instructor than the memory. 

There is in the island one house more, and 
only one, that has a chimney; we entered it, 
and found it neither wanting repair nor inhabi- 
tants; but to the farmers, who now possess it, 
the chimney is of no great value; for their fire 
was made on the floor, in the middle of the 
room, and notwithstanding the dignity of their 
mansion, they rejoiced, like their neighbours, 
in the comforts of smoke. 

It is observed, that ecclesiastical colleges arc 
always in the most pleasant and fruitful places. 
While the world allowed the monks theirchoice 
it is surely no dishonour that they chose well. 
This island is remarkably fruitful. The village 
near the churches is said to contain seventy fa- 
milies, which, at five in a family, is more than 
a hundred inhabitants to a mile. There are 
perhaps other villages; yet both corn and cattle 
are annually exported. 

But the fruit fulness of lona is now^ its v/hole 
prosperity. The inhabitants are remarkably 
gross, and remarkably neglected: I know not if 
they are visited by any minister. The island, 
which was once the metropolis of learning and 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 263 

piety, has now no school for education, nor 
temple for worship, only two inhabitants that 
can speak English, and not one that can write 
or read. 

The people are of the clan of Maclean; and 
though Sir Allan had not been in the place for 
many years, he was received with all the reve- 
rence due their chieftain. One of them being 
sharply reprehended by him, for not sending 
him some rum, declared after his departure, in 
Mr. Boswell's presence, that he had no design 
of disappointing him, '* for," said he, " I would 
** cut my bones for him; and if he had sent his 
** dog for it, he should have had it." 

When we were to depart, our boat w^as left 
by the ebb at a great distance from the water, 
but no sooner did we wish it afloat, than the 
islanders gathered round it, and, by the union 
of many hands, pushed it down the beach; 
every man who could contribute his help seem- 
ed to think himself happy in the opportunity 
of being, for a moment, useful to his chief. 

We now left those illustrious ruins, by which 
Mr. Boswell was much affected, nor would I 
willingly be thought to have looked upon them 
without some emotion. Perhaps, in the revolu- 



264 A JOURNEY TO THE 

tions of the world, lona may be some time again 
the instructress of the Western regions. 

It was no long voyage to Mull, where, under 
Sir Allan's protection, we landed in the even- 
ing, and v/ere entertained for the night by Mr. 
Maclean, a minister that lives upon the coast, 
whose elegance of conversation, and strength 
of judgment, would make him conspicuous in 
persons of greater celebrity. Next day we dined 
with Dr. Maclean, another physician, and then 
travelled on to the house of a very powerful 
laird, Maclean of Lochbuy; for in this country 
every man's name is Maclean. 

Where races are thus numerous, and thus 
combined, none but the chief of a clan is ad- 
dressed by his name. The laird of Dunvegan 
is called Macleod, but other gentlemen of the 
same family are denominated by the places 
where they reside, as Raasa or Talisker. The 
distinction of the meaner people is made by 
their christian names. In consequence of this 
practice, the late laird of Macfarlane, an emi- 
nent genealogist, considered himself as disre- 
spectfully treated, if the common addition was 
applied to him. Mr. Macfarlane, said he, may 
with equal propriety be said to many; but I, 
and I only, am Macfarlane. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 265 

Our afternoon journey was through a coun- 
try of such gloomy desolation, that Mr. Boswell 
thought no part of the Highlands equally ter- 
rifick, yet we came without any difficulty, at 
evening, to Lochbuy, where we found a true 
Highland laird, rough and haughty, and tena- 
cious of his dignity; who, hearing my name, 
inquired whether I was of the Johnstons of 
Glencoe, or of Ardnamurchan? 

Lochbuy has, like the other insular chieftains, 
quitted the castle that sheltered his ancestors, 
and lives near it, in a mansion not very spacious 
or splendid. I have seen no houses in the islands 
much to be envied for convenience or magnifi- 
cence, yet they bear testimony to the progress 
of arts and civility, as they show that rapine and 
surprise are no longer dreaded, and are much 
more commodious than the ancient fortresses. 

The castles x)f the Hebrides, many of which 
are standing, and many ruii^^, were always 
built upon points of land, on the margin of the 
sea. For the choice of this situation there must 
have been some general reason, which the 
change of manners has left in obscurity. They 
were of no use in the days of piracy, as defen- 
ces of the coast; for it was equally accessible 



266 A JOURNEY TO THE 

in other places. Had they been seamarks or 
lighthouses, they would have been of more use 
to the invader than the natives, who could want 
no such directions on their own waters: for a 
watchtower, a cottage on a hill would have 
been better, as it would have commanded a 
wider view. 

If they be considered merely as places of re- 
treat, the situation seems not well chosen; for . 
the laird of an island is safest from foreign ene- 
mies in the centre: on the coast he might be 
more suddenly surprised than in the inland parts; 
and the invaders, if their enterprise miscarried^ 
jnight more easily retreat. Some convenience, 
however, whatever it was, their position on the 
shore afforded; for uniformity of practice sel- 
dom continues long without good reason. 

A castle in the islands is only a single tower 
«f three or four stories, of which the v/alls are 
sometimes eiglU or nine feet thick, with narrow 
windows, and close winding stairs of stone. The 
top rises in a cone, or pyramid of stone, en- 
compassed by battlements. The intermediate 
floors are sometimes frames of timber, as in 
common houses, and sometimes arches of stone, 
er alternsitely stone and timber; so that there 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 267 

was very little danger from fire. In the centre 
of every floor, from top to bottom, is the chief 
room, of no great extent, round which there 
are narrow cavities, or recesses, formed by small 
vacuities, or by a double wall. I know not 
whether there be ever more than one fireplace, 
They had not capacity to contain many people, 
©r much provision; but their enemies could 
seldom stay to blockade them; for if they fail- 
ed in the first attack, their next care was td 
escape. 

The walls are always too strong to be shaken 
by such desultory hostilities; the windows were 
too narrow to be entered, and the battlements 
too high to be scaled. The only danger was 
at the gates, over which the wall w^as built with 
a square cavity, not unlike a chimney, conti- 
nued to the top. Through this hollow the de- 
fendants let fall stones upon those who attempt- 
ed to break the gate, and poured down water, 
perhaps scalding water, if the attack was made 
with fire. The castle of Lochbuy was secured 
by double doors, of which the outer was an 
iron grate. 

In every castle is a well and a dungeon. The 
dse of the well is evident. The dungeon is a 



268 A JOURNEY TO THE 

deep subterraneous cavity, walled on the sides, 
and arched on the top, into which the descent 
}S thrpugh a narrow door, by a ladder or a rope, 
sp that it seems impossible to escape, when the 
rope or ladder is drawn up. The dungeon was, 
I suppose, in war, a prison for such captives as 
were treated with severity, and, in peace, for 
such delinquents as had committed crimes 
within the laird's jurisdiction; for the mansions 
.of many lairds were, till the late privation of 
their privileges, the halls of justice to their own 
tenants. 

As these fortifications were the productions 
of mere necessity, they are built only for safety, 
wdth little regard to convenience, and with none 
to elegance or pleasure. It was sufficient for a 
laird of the Hebrides, if he had a strong house, 
in which he could hide his wife and children 
from the next clan. That they are not large 
nor splendid, is no wonder. It is not easy to 
find how they are raised, such as they are, by 
men w ho had no money, in countries where the 
labourers and artificers could scarcely be fed. 
The buildings in different parts of the islands 
i>how their degrees of wealth and power. I be- 
lieve that for all the castles which I have seen 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 269 

beyond the Tweed, the ruins yet remaining of 
some one of these which the English built in 
Wales, would supply materials. 

These castles afford another evidence that the 
fictions of romantick chivalry had for their basis 
the real manners of the feudal times, when 
every lord of a seigniory lived in his hold law- 
less and unaccountable, with all the licentious- 
ness and insolence of imcontested superiority 
and unprincipled power. The traveller, who- 
ever he might be, coming to the fortified habi- 
tation of a chieftain, would, probably, have 
been interrogated from the battlements, admit- 
ted with caution at the gate, introduced to a 
petty monarch, fierce with habitual hostility, 
and vigilant with ignorant suspicion; who, ac- 
cording to his general temper, or accidental 
humour, would have seated a stranger as his 
guest at the table, or as a spy confined him in 
the dungeon. 

Loch buy means the Yellow Lake, which is 
the name given to an inlet of the sea, upon 
which the castle of Mr. Maclean stands. The 
reason of the appellation we did not learn. 

We were now to leave the Hebrides, where 
we had spent some weeks with sufficient amuse- 

Z2 



2JQ. -^ JOURNEY TO THE 

ment, and where we had amplified our thoughts 
with new scenes of nature, and new modes of 
life. More time would have given us a more 
distinct view, but it was necessary that Mr. 
Boswell should return before the courts of jus- 
tice were opened; and it was not proper to live 
too long upon hospitality, however liberally im- 
parted. 

Of these islands it must be confessed, that 
they have not many allurements, but to the 
mere lover of naked nature. The inhabitants 
are thin, provisions are scarce, and desolation" 
and penury give little pleasure. 

The people collectively considered are not 
few, though their numbers are small in propor- 
tion to the space which tl\ey occupy. Mull is 
said to contain six thousand, and Sky fifteen 
thousand. Of the computation respecting Mull, 
I can give no account; but when I doubted the 
truth of the numbers attributed to Sky, one of 
the ministers exhibited such facts as conquered 
my incredulity. 

Of the proportion, which the product of any 
region bears to the people, an estimate is com- 
monly made according to the pecuniary price 
0f Ae necessaries of life; a principle of judg- 



WESTERN ISLAND^^. 271 

ment which is never certain, because it sup- 
poses what is far from truth, that the value of 
money is always the same, and so measures an 
unknown quantity by an uncertain standard. It 
is competentenough when the markets of the 
same country, at different times, and those 
times not too distant, are to be compared; but 
of very little use for the purpose of making one 
nation acquainted with the state of another. 
Provisions, though plentiful, are sold in places 
of great pecuniary opulence for nominal prices, 
which, however scarce, where gold and silver 
are yet scarcer, they can never be raised. 

In the Western Islands there is so little in- 
ternal commerce, that hardly any thing has a 
known or settled rate. The price of things 
brought in, or carried out, is to be considered 
as that of a foreign market; and even this there 
is some difficulty in discovering, because their 
denominations of quantity are diiferent from 
ours; and when there is ignorance on both 
sides, no appeal can be made to a common 
measure. 

• This, however, is not the only impediment. 
The Scots, with a vigilance of jealousy which 
never goes to sleep, always suspect that an 



272 A JOUHNEY TO THE 

Englishman despises them for their poverty, 
and to convince him that they are not less rich 
than their neighbours, are sure to tell him a 
price higher than the true. When Lesley, two 
hundred years ago, related* so punctiliously, 
that a hundred hen eggs, new laid, were sold 
in the islands for a penny, he supposed that no 
inference could possibly follow, but that eggs 
were in great abundance. Posterity has since 
grown wiser; and having learned, that nominal 
and real value may differ, they now tell no such 
stories, lest the foreigners should happen to 
collect, not that eggs are many, but that pence 
are few, 
* Money and wealth have, by the use of com- 
mercial language, been so long confounded, 
that they are commonly supposed to be the 
same; and this prejudice has spread so widely 
in Scotland, that I know not whether I found 
man or woman, whom I interrogated concern- 
ing payments of money, that could surmount 
the illiberal desire of deceiving me, by repre- 
senting every thing as dearer than it is. 

From Lochbuy we rode a very few miles te 
the side of Mull, which faces Scotland, where, 
having taken leave of our kind protector, sir 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 273 

Allan, we embarked in a boat, in which the 
seat provided for our accommodation was a 
heap of rough brushwood; and on the twenty- 
second of October reposed at a tolerable inn on 
the main land. 

On the next day we began our journey south- 
wards. The weather was tempestuous. For half 
the day the ground was rough, and our horses 
were still small. Had they required much re- 
straint, we might have been reduced to difficul- 
ties; for I think we had amongst us but one 
bridle. We fed the poor animals liberally, and 
they performed their journey well. In the latter 
part of the day, we came to a firm and smooth 
road, made by the soldiers, on which we tra- 
velled with great security, busied with contem- 
plating the scene about us. The night came on 
while we had yet a great part of the way to go, 
though not so dark but that we could discern 
the cataracts which poured down the hills on 
one side, and fell into one general channel that 
ran with great violence on the other. The wind 
was loud, the rain was heavy, and the whistling 
of the blast, the fall of the shower, the rush of 
the cataracts, and the roar of the torrent, made 
a nobler chorus of the rough mtisick of nature,, 



274 A JOURNEY TO THE 

than it had ever been my chance to hear be- 
fore. The streams, which ran cross the way 
from the hills to the main current, were so fre- 
quent, that after awhile I began to count them; 
and, in ten miles, reckoned fifty-five, probably 
missing some, and having let some pass before 
they forced themselves upon my notice. At last 
we came to Inveraray, where we found an inn, 
not only commodious, but magnificent* 

The difficulties of peregrination v/ere now at 
an end. Mr. Boswell had the honour of being 
known to the duke of Argyll, by whom we 
were very kindly entertained at his splendid 
seat, and supplied with conveniencies for sur- 
veying his spacious park and rising forests. 

After two days' stay at Inveraray we proceed- 
ed southward over Glencoe, a black and dreary 
region, now made easily passable by a military 
road, which rises from either end of the glen, 
by an acclivity not dangerously steep, but suffi- 
ciently laborious. In the middle, at the top of 
the hill, is a seat with this inscription: " Rest, 
'*and be thankful.'' Stones wxre placed to 
mark the distances, which the inhabitants have 
taken away, resolved, they said, " to have no 
." new miles." 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 275 

In this rainy season the hills streamed with 
waterfals, which, crossing the way, formed cur- 
rents on the other side, that ran in contrary di- 
rections as they fell to the north or south of 
the summit. Being, by the favour of the duke, 
well mounted, I went up and down the hill 
with great convenience. 

From Glencoe we passed through a pleasant 
country to the banks of Loch Lomond, and 
were received at the house of Sir James Col- 
quhoun, who is owner of almost all the thirty 
islands of the Loch, which we went in a boat 
next morning to survey. The heaviness of the 
rain shortened our voyage, but we landed on 
one island planted with yew, and stocked with 
deer, and on another containing perhaps not 
more than half an acre, remarkable for the ruins 
of an old castle, on which the osprey builds her 
annual nest. Had Loch Lomond been in a hap- 
pier climate, it would have been the boast of 
wealth and vanity to own one of the little spots 
which it encloses, and to have employed upon 
it all the arts of embellishment. But as it is, 
the islets, which court the gazer at a distance, 
disgust him at his approach, when he finds, in- 
stead of soft lawns and shady thickets, nothing 
more than uncultivated ruggedness. 



276 A JOURNEY TO THE 

Where the loch discharges itself into a river, 
called the Leven, we passed a night with Mr. 
Smollett, a relation of Doctor Smollett, to 
whose memory he has raised an obelisk on 
the bank near the house in which he was born. 
The civility and respect which we found at 
every place, it is ungrateful to omit, and tedious 
to repeat. Here we were met by a postchaise, 
that conveyed us to Glasgow. 

To describe a city so much frequented as 
Glasgow, is unnecessary. The prosperity of its 
commerce appears by the greatness of many 
private houses, and a general appearance of 
wealth. It is the only episcopal city whose ca- 
thedral was left standing in the rage of refor- 
mation. It is now divided into many separate 
places of worship, which, taken altogether, com- 
pose a great pile, that had been some centuries 
in building, but was never finished; for the 
change of religion intercepted its progress, 
before the cross isle was added, which seems 
essential to a Gothick cathedral. 

The college has not had a sufficient share of 
the increasing magnificence of the place. The 
session was begun; for it commences on the 
tenth of October, and continues to the tenth of 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 277 

June; but the students appeared not numerous, 
being, I suppose, not yet returned from their 
several homes. The division of the academical 
year into one session, and one recess, seems to 
me better accommodated to the present state of 
life, than that variegation of time by terms and 
vacations derived from distant centuries, in 
- which it was probably convenient, and still con- 
tinued in the English universities. So many 
solid months as the Scotch scheme of education 
joins together, allow and encourage a plan for 
each part of the year; but with us, he that has 
settled himself to study in the college is soon 
tempted into the country, and he that has ad- 
justed his life in the country, is summoned 
back to his college. 

* Yet when I have allowed to the universities 
of Scotland a more rational distribution of time, 
I have given them, so far as my inquiries have 
informed me, all that they can claim. The stu- 
dents, for the most part, go thither boys, and 
depart before they are men; they carry with 
them little fundamental knowledge, and there- 
fore the superstructure cannot be lofty. The 
grammar schoolsarenot generally well supplied; 

for the character of a schoolmaster being there 
2 A 



278 A JOURNEY TO THE 

less honourable than in England, is seldom ac- 
cepted by men who are capable to adorn it, 
and where the school has been deficient, the 
college can effect little. 

Men bred in the universities of Scotland can- 
not be expected to be often decorated with the 
splendours of ornamental erudition, but they 
obtain a mediocrity of knowledge, between 
learning and ignorance, not inadequate to the 
purposes of common life, which is, I believe, 
very W'idely diffused among them, and which, 
countenanced in general by a national combi- 
nation so invidious, that their friends cannot 
defend it, and actuated in particulars by a spirit 
of enterprize, so vigorous, that their enemies 
are constrained to praise it, enables them to find, 
or to make their way to employment, riches, 
and distinction. 

From Glasgow we directed our course to 
Auchinleck, an estate devolved, through along 
series of ancestors, to* Mr. BoswelPs father, the 
present possessor. In our way we found several 
places remarkable enough in themselves, but 
already described by those who view^ed them 
at more leisure, or with much more skill, and 
stopped two days at Mr. Campbell's, a gentle- 
man married to Mr Boswell's sister. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 279 

Auchinleck, which signifies a Stony Field, 
seems not now to have any particular claim to 
its denomination. It is a district generally level, 
and sufficiently fertile, but like ail the Western 
side of Scotland, incommoded by very frequent 
rain. It was, .with the rest of the country, ge- 
nerally naked, till the present possessor finding, 
by the growth of some stately trees near his old 
castle, that the ground was favourable enough 
to timber, adorned it very diligently with an- 
nual plantations. 

Lord -Auchinleck, who is one of the judges 
of Scotland, and therefore not wholly at leisure 
for domestick business or pleasure, has yet 
found time to make improvements in his patri- 
mony. He has built a house of hewn stone, very 
stately and durable, and has advanced the value 
of his lands with great tenderness lo his tenants. 

I was, however, less delighted with the ele- 
gance of the modern mansion, than with the 
sullen dignity of the old castle. 1 clambered 
with Mr. Bosw^eli among the ruins, which af- 
ford striking images of ancient life. It is, like 
other castles, built upon a point of rock, and 
was, I believe, anciently surrounded with a 
moat. There is another rock near it, to which 



280 A JOURNEY TO THE 

the drawbridge, when it was let down, is said 
to have reached. Here, in the ages of tumult 
and rapine, the laird was surprised and killed 
by the neighbouring chief, w^ho perhaps might 
have extinguished the family, had he not in a 
few days been seized arid hanged, together with 
his sons, by Douglas, who came w ith his forces 
to the relief of Auchinleck. 

At no great distance from the house runs a 
pleasing brook,- by a red rock, out of which has 
been hewn a very agreeable and commodious 
summerhouse, at less expense, as lord Auchin- 
leck told me, than would have been required 
to build a room of the same dimensions. The 
rock seems to have no more dampness than 
any other wall. Such opportunities of variety it 
is judicious not to neglect. 

We now returned to Edinburgh, where I 
passed some days with raen of learning, whose 
names want no advancement from my comme- 
moration, or with women of elegance, which 
perhaps disclaims a pedant's praise. 

The conversation of the Scots grows every 
day less unpleasing to the English; their pecu- 
liarities wear fast away; their dialect is likely to 
become in half a century provincial and rustick. 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 281 

even to themselves. The great, the learned, 
the ambitious, and the vain, all cultivate the 
English phrase, and the English pronunciation, 
and in splendid companies Scotch is not much 
heard, except now and then from an old lady. 

There is one subject of philosophical curi- 
osity to be found in Edinburgh, which no other 
city has to show; a college of the deaf and 
dumb, who are taught to speak, to read, to 
write, and to practise arithmetick, by a gentle- 
man, whose name is Braidwood. The number 
which attends him is, I think, about twelve,, 
which he brings together into a little school, 
and instructs according to their several degrees 
of proficiency. 

I do not mean to mention the instruction of 
the deaf as new. Having been first practised 
upon the son of a constable of Spain, it was af- 
terwards cultivated with much emulation in 
England, by Wallis and Holder, and was lately 
professed by Mr. Baker, who once flattered me 
with hopes of seeing his method published. How 
far any former teachers have succeeded, it is 
not easy to know; the improvement of Mr. 
Braidwocd's pupils is wonderful. They not 
©nly speak, write, and understand what is writ- 



282 A JOURNEY TO THE 

ten, but if he that speaks looks towards them, 
and modifies his organs by distinct and full ut- 
terance, they know so well what is spoken, that 
it is an expression scarcely figurative to say, 
they hear with the eye. That any h^ve attained 
to the power mentioned by Burnet, of feeling 
sounds, by laying a hand on the. speaker's 
mouth, I know not; but I have seen so much, 
that I can believe more; a single word, or a 
short sentence, I think, may possibly be so 
distinguished. 

It will readily be supposed by those that con- 
sider this subject, that Mr. Braid wood's scho- 
lars spell accurately. Orthography is vitiated 
among such as learn first to speak, and then 
to write, by imperfect notions oi" the relation 
between letters and vocal utterance; but to those 
students every character is of equal importance; 
for letters are to them not s} mbols of names, 
but of things; when they write they do not re- 
present a sound, but delineate a form. 

This school I visited, and found some of the 
scholars waiting for their master, whom they arc 
said to receive at his entrance with smihng 
Countenances and sparkling eyes, delighted with 
the hope of new ideas. One of the youngs 



WESTERN ISLANDS. 283 

adies had her slate before her, on which I wrote 
a quesiion consisting of three figures, to be 
multiplied by two figures. She looked upon it, 
and quivering her fingers in a manner which I 
thought very pretty, but of which I know not 
whether it was art or play, multiplied the sum 
regularly in two lines, observing the decimal 
place; but did not add the two lines together, 
-probably disdaining so easy an operation. I 
pointed at the place, where the sum total should 
stand, and she noted it with such expedition as 
seemed to show that she had it only to write. 

It was pleasing to see one of the most despe- 
rate of human calamities capable of so much 
help: whatever enlarges hope, will exalt cou- 
rage; after having seen the deaf taught arith- 
metick, who would be afraid to cultivate the 
Hebrides? 

Such are the things which this journey has 
given me an opportunity of seeing, and such 
are the reflections which that sight has raised. 
Having passed my time almost wholly in cities, 
I may have been surprised by modes of life and 
appearances of nature, that are familiar to men 



2S4 A JOURNEY TO THE, Sec. 

of wider survey and more varied conversation. 
Novelty and ignorance must always be recipro- 
cal, and I cannot but be conscious that my 
thoughts on national manners, are the thoughts 
of one who has seen but little. 



THE END. 



IBJL C7 



